Take Over the World With Me
by DigitalReverse
Summary: Tom Riddle took twelve years to form a plan to conquer the world when wandering as a spectre. This plan needed the one loyal family whom he threw away to succeed. Lucky for him, they did not return the favour.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I may have created a few things within this story, but I do not make any money off of this story, and I only claim to truly own the OC. But even then, he's probably not the most original guy out there.

A/N This is a short pilot chapter. It's been slightly revamped since inception, but it's still currently just here to introduce the story and the OC. That's my excuse. Yep. Oh, also, most of the revamping was the addition of world-building exposition, so the balance between exposition and story flow may be a bit off, for which I apologize.  
As well, Parseltongue is indicated as **§Parseltongue§** , and spells are italicized only when spoken.

Enjoy

* * *

Ah, how refreshing the train compartments are. The ashy blond teen rolled his eyes. The only thing refreshing about them is the knowledge they're taking him away from his incompetent peers.

With a sigh, he dropped down into the seat next to the window, letting his trunk fall silently to the floor. At least he only had to deal with said peers for two and a half more years. And not all of them were incompetent, just... the vast majority. One would think that after Voldemort's return, the students would have been more efficiently taught, but that didn't end up being the case. Rather, everyone relied on Harry Potter's skill to defeat the Dark Lord - which worked out quite well in the end: Voldemort had certainly been defeated by the surprisingly talented Potter during the anti-climatic scene staged in a graveyard. Anti-climatic because Voldemort hadn't quite expected Potter to be so battle able, and was quickly dispatched in a duel. So the papers told, at least.

In that following summer, Albus Dumbledore make the executive decision to inform the media of Voldemort's horcruxes, thus beginning a short and sweet search and destroy of all five remaining horcruxes - Potter's included. How exactly the Ministry destroyed the horcrux without also destroying the boy was never said: the Department of Mysteries is called so for a reason.

After placing basic sound wards on the compartment, both to block sounds coming in and to block sounds from going out, the teen reached up and took hold of a pendant around his neck, bringing it up to get a better look. It was a simple thing. Nobody would think it more than a trinket. He had been wearing it for three years now. It had almost become part of his image.

A sapphire sat as a four sided star in the center of a silver oval, which had simple filigree designs engraved on the edges. Very simple. But a dark, cruel brat was inside the gem. Voldemort had been killed, there was no doubt about that. Tom Riddle, on the other hand, survived.

Not even a year had passed, and good ol' Marvolo was ready to burst from his chrysalis into a blood curdling beautiful python.

"Calm down Marvolo. We've a couple weeks yet." he said with unveiled amusement. He himself was excited too, though. He never did get to do any fighting last time. He was kept under the radar. Nobody was supposed to know he was related to the dark in any way, after all. Although, if the plan goes right, he was unlikely to do any fighting anyways.

Light annoyance arose from the gem, but it didn't last very long.

Chuckling quietly to himself, he gently dropped the horcrux to lay against his chest. He released the wards on the compartment a few minutes later once remembering that Sirius Black was on the train, someone well versed in magic and could likely sense it. While he probably knew enough from his mother, a dark arts as well as a defense against the dark arts historian, to put up undetectable ones, it's always better to be safe than sorry. He was still under the radar, and drawing attention to himself for having wards up was not preferable.

Much to the teen's displeasure, the door slid open to reveal two people he hadn't expected. Not that he had expected anyone. He was a classic Ravenclaw - he liked to read books and keep to himself.

He raised an eyebrow at the intruders, Harry Potter and Sirius Black themselves, silently questioning their reasoning for disturbing him. He was just about to pull out a new book too, and he couldn't bring that one out with the two light labourers there.

Instead of answering, the dog grinned and hopped in, taking the seat across from him, while Harry sat next to Sirius after closing the door.

"Thanks for letting us join you, Lycus! We needed a place to talk without disturbance and knew you'd be cool with us being here." Sirius said, completely disregarding the bored look on the Ravenclaw's face. Harry was nice enough to shoot him an apologetic look, to which he replied by giving an inaudible sigh, accompanied by a look of understanding. Sirius was granted the right to be annoyingly excited to do most things after thirteen years in Azkaban. It was only fair. It wouldn't surprise Lycus if they had actively sought out his compartment - Sirius had a generous soft spot for the Ravenclaw that found Wormtail in the Forbidden Forest, ultimately ensuring his freedom.

The two Gryffindors began to talk to each other about plans for winter break, to which Lycus ignored (though didn't tune out) and leaned back to get more comfortable for the long ride ahead. Grabbing an artbook and color-automatic pencil from his trunk, he began to draw out some runic templates to try out when he got bored.

At some point during the ride, the two Gryffindors finished their planning and instead turned towards other topics, some of which Lycus participated in. Small banter continued through the rest of the ride.

The ride ended right after the drawing was finished, and the two Gryffindors had exited with a farewell by the time Lycus got the artbook back in the trunk.

He allowed himself a small smile when he got home. Free for three weeks.

The first of which was spent preparing for Marvolo's return. Unlike what one may think, it wasn't a blood or sacrificial ritual. It could be considered dark, but not necessarily evil. It was also rather simple, like many successful things in life. Occam's Razor. In fact, it required only one incantation.

T'was a Reincarnation Ritual, done when you wish to force a reincarnation before the soul's time, or to call the reincarnated soul that's in it's new body to you. It was created by Marvolo and Lycus - Marvolo with the idea, and Lycus with the knowledge to make it happen - based on a preceding ritual. Marvolo tested it (more like had Barty test it), and it was capable of taking a soul out of an inanimate object, and transferring it to a body, rather than making a new one. The caveat was that there was a soul mass to body mass ratio, so if you didn't have enough of a soul in the object, it would be unable to properly transfer and animate. They had half of Marvolo's soul, which should be enough, but it was always possible that it wouldn't be.

The preparation for it was creating the body, a potion, a very special leaf, and setting up the rune circle in which the body will be placed for the soul to enter.

The body was rather easy. Lycus was exemplary at ancient runes, far beyond that of what Hogwarts could ever teach. Granted, he had been provided with advanced runes from birth, so perhaps it was an unfair comparison. To him, the creation of a body with the specifications of being based off the original Tom Marvolo Riddle, alive and human, with the capabilities, repercussions, and magic to fit the wizarding bill, was kind of child's play. It was just like copying a prewritten text to a new page.

A silver moon leaf is a leaf of a yew tree, funnily enough, which had been covered in dew and placed under the light of a full moon. From a yew tree, because they were connected to death and resurrection already. The dew was just a transmitter of power from the moon, which, when full, provided some artifact of life giving magic. Lycus didn't fully understand it. The texts his mother had only went into so much detail. Such leaves are common, however, as they aren't that difficult to make. The only issue is that they only work when decently fresh.

The pendant had been soaking in the potion for eight days. It was akin to a Pepper Up potion, but it was made for a disembodied soul rather than a living person. Not surprisingly, a disembodied soul has a hard time being aware or doing things. The potion set out to make sure Marvolo was able to find his body, both by making him aware and by providing him with a connection to his body. It was designed by Lycus's father, a private potions master. Once the potion turned dark silver, Lycus began the ritual.

The golem-like body was in the center of the previously drawn runic circle, clothed, with runes on the inner outline with nine paths leading to the body, runes lining the inside of these paths as well, all geared to guiding the energy of the spell to the body rather than allowing it to escape. Walking over to the body, Lycus took the pendant out of the potion and placed the sapphire directly over the heart of the body. The rest of the potion was poured into the mouth of the body, and a wisp of light appeared, wrapping around the body, connected to the sapphire.

The teen placed the leaf on top of the pendant, stood up, and backed out of the circle. Once out, he knelt down to place his hand on the outermost part of the circle to provide it with power after he cast the spell. Focusing his magic, he looked at the leaf, and whispered one word in Parseltongue, courtesy of Marvolo. " **§ _Fiendfyrei_** **§**."

The leaf blazed in a black fire, quickly turning stormy grey, and battered against the edges of the circle, but always forced back to the body by the nine paths. The sound of glass breaking was heard as the sapphire broke, releasing the half soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Looking at his watch, Lycus wondered if he would have enough energy after this was done to get to reading that one goblin book. He couldn't leave until Marvolo successfully entered his body: the runes have to be continuously powered lest he wanted the circle to break.

Lucky for him, Marvolo was conscious enough to find his body within a minute. The fire dimmed down and dissipated in a few seconds after the soul entered the body.

Once feeling the circle wouldn't break if he stopped powering, Lycus brought his magic back into himself. Marvolo, for the body is no longer just a body, sat up, blinked, and grinned. The amber eyes of Lycus rolled at that.

"To have hands again!" to accompany this, Marvolo brought his hands up to look at said hands, flexing them and bending their fingers as though they were odd and new appendages. "And not be a snake-face."

"I rather liked the snake-face. Perhaps not the most terrifying, but better to watch people avoid looking at you in fear than to watch them avoid looking at you because they'll blush." Lycus shook his head lightly, snorting in amusement.

"Perhaps... but a charming appearance is only beneficial for our plans you'll have to agree." the newly human Dark Lord stated, expecting no disagreement despite the semi-questioning tone he used.

"Naturally. But you're not the one who has to do most of the charming." Lycus countered. Marvolo may have chosen to have his original body back, but that didn't mean anything when you have magic to disguise yourself. What did matter was that Marvolo did more management than active interaction. At least, that was the plan.

"Hmm, perchance it seems that I may be more involved than we initially decided. I don't fancy the idea of being complacent, you see." Marvolo said, once more with the tone that he didn't expect any opposition to the notion described. Lycus would grant him acquiescence for the time being, opting to slowly nod his head in reply. It's not like he really minded the idea of Marvolo taking a more active stance.

After a few seconds of silence, the teen stood. "Well, while I'd love to continue this exhilarating conversation, I have a book to read," and he began to walk out.

"Of course, of course. Just remember that we have things to do very soon!" Marvolo called after, holding up the broken pendant as a reminder of what exactly they needed to do.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N I didn't expect to get around to Dacarus until a bit later, but when a story wants to write itself, you just have to let it write itself. Just explaining right now that Marvolo and Lycus are going to be referred to with different names based on the situation, and I'm sure you'll all catch onto it when you start reading the instances where I switch between them. Marvolo especially will have this done to him in the future.

Enjoy.

* * *

Marvolo took some time to walk around and enjoy being corporeal again, giving Lycus just a little bit of time to read whatever book he was on now. Marvolo knew the layout of the Valerian Manor well enough, having spent a lot of time there in the past three years. Spectre or not, he was still able to roam around, though only in very short bursts. Plus he had spent nearly the whole time with Lycus, so he knew the teens habits well. It was because of this that he had no need to seek help to find the library, where he correctly assumed Lycus went to read that book he mentioned.

He would by lying if he said he wasn't impressed by the boy's talent at ancient runes - creating a body with specifications to be an exact and true copy of someone is anything but easy. Then again, this was the kind of thing that the Dark Lord should be provided with by his followers. He should not have come to expect anything less than the best from them, but his experiences had led him to do so.

Seeking out the Valerians had been a gamble on his part, and they were the hinges on which his door needed to swing in order for his plans to succeed. The Valerians were the only ones that refused to take the Dark Mark - claiming that they could be more useful if they didn't have to worry about being found out. At the time, Voldemort had been rather angry with them for this, eventually casting them away, even almost deciding to kill them for their insolence. As was the case, their decision to not be branded worked in his favour. They were never under any suspicion, and therefore were the most secure bet in being able to return quietly. He knew this, even as a spectre, and began planning his return with them in mind. If they had decided to cast him away as he had done to them years ago, he would have had to resort to other means of returning.

But that didn't happen. Marvolo found that they had stayed loyal to him throughout the years. This loyalty was shown in the form of a gift. That gift was Lycus, their son, who from birth was taught that he was to be an obedient and valuable servant to the Dark Lord. Obedience seemed like it went through one ear and out the other with Lycus, who was willful over subservient. That trait had shown itself to be advantageous, so the Dark Lord tolerated it.

Marvolo stepped into the great Valerian Library. The library had a heaping of scrolls and tomes to go along with the books of various languages. What those scrolls and tomes held, Marvolo didn't know. Villa, Lycus's mother, practically hoarded books as a hobby, ensuring that they could be about any number of things.

He grinned when he spotted the teen engrossed in a leather-bound book of some sort, making his way over with a stride worthy of a new and improved Dark Lord. After spending the better part of three years with the teen, he knew that interrupting his reading would annoy him. As predicted, Lycus glanced up at him, sighed, and closed his book, convinced he'd never be able to finish it with the Dark Lord now in a physical body.

"I hope you didn't forget that we need to make you a new necklace." Marvolo said as he approached the boy.

Lycus ran a hand through his hair, something he did when irritated. "I figured you would want to take some time having half a soul again before splitting it again."

While Marvolo did just spend thirty minutes roaming for that exact reason, he'd never admit it. An eyebrow raise "confirmed" that this was not the case before Marvolo expressed it in words. "Of course not. Being without a horcrux is a liability." Lycus nodded at this whilst silently emitting another sigh, putting his book in his bag and standing up.

Lycus was often quite sarcastic towards Marvolo, but he was still a dutiful servant, and he knew when he had duties to attend to. He bowed before Marvolo and vocalized this stance, playing the perfect servant, "I apologize for my oversight, my Lord. I already have the necklace ready. Would you like for me to find someone for you to kill, or would you rather go out yourself?"

This curbed Marvolo's slight displeasure at his follower's error, certain that this would be unlikely to happen again, but the actions also caused him to feel just a bit awkward, a new feeling for the Dark Lord. "We shall head out soon. I am in need of a new wand, however, and will have to use yours for the task," was his decision.

"Of course, my Lord. I will be sure to call a wandmaker when we get back for a replacement." Lycus said, drawing out his tone in a familiar way, still bowing to his Lord. Marvolo couldn't help but think of the Malfoys.

"Get up already, Lycus. You're no Draco Malfoy." Marvolo breathed out, refusing his body's want to cross his arms. Lycus complied, raising with a smirk that told of his dubious reason for his minion behaviour. Sometimes Marvolo wondered why Lycus wasn't made a member of the house of silver and green.

"Certainly not. I'm simply preparing you for your future," Lycus replied, still with the smirk and a humourous inflection.

With that out of the way, Marvolo briefly pondered the idea of a custom wand. He enjoyed the idea of a custom made wand, but knew that such things tended to take time to create, and he didn't want to wait much more than a day or two to get his own wand. It would certainly take longer than that for a wand to be made. "We will be taking a trip to a wand shop for a temporary one wand, perhaps after my horcrux is made. We can call a wandmaker later."

Lycus decided not to question why they wouldn't get a temporary wand first, correctly assuming that Marvolo had his horcrux as the top priority.

Marvolo didn't give any time for another response, instead turning and walking away from Lycus, "Come, Lycus. There is someone out there that requires death." He said jovially. The sound of footsteps behind him let him know Lycus was following.

Marvolo found his way to the nearest parlour within the manor, knowing that each one held a fireplace that could be used for flooing. He supposed that it may be a good idea to let Anton or Villa know that they were going to be gone for a short while, but at the same time, he didn't want to bother with that. It's not as though he needed their permission.

He had just stepped in front of the fireplace when Lycus spoke up, "Marvolo, I believe that you should put on a few glamours before leaving the manor."

The Dark Lord mentally facepalmed, turning around and approaching the servant that had just provided a pretty good reason for being a member of the house of blue and bronze. Lycus had already brought out his wand, too, offering it to Marvolo, who took it and waved it over his body to make adjustments to his appearance. He took inspiration from the Valerians, going for wavy blond hair, though of a more strawberry variety, hazel eyes, and a tall lean figure with some effeminate facial features. He gave a smile meant to charm. "How do I look?"

Lycus gave him a droll look, "Like Dacarus the Enchanter."

"And who might that be?"

He was given a shrug in reply, "Some guy from a few hundred years ago. He was known as the Enchanter because he had 'a beauty unlike any other, able to enchant those around him with just a look'." Air quotes were given to emphasize that these were not the words of Lycus.

Enchanting was certainly one way to describe the look Marvolo had chosen. He grinned a stupidly alluring grin at this information, thinking of how that worked in his favour when it came to interacting with people. The more distracting he was, the better.

"With that grin, you kind of look like the less annoying cousin of Lockhart." Lycus said through a quiet laugh.

"Who?" Marvolo asked as he waved Lycus's wand over its owner to give him some glamours as well - he didn't want anyone to recognize Lycus, as that may bring attention to them. Well, more attention than they would have already if Marvolo really did look "enchanting."

Marvolo had something in mind when putting a glamour on Lycus. Some random and unusual book he read once when he was going to Hogwarts had a character named Arnou, who was a beautiful black wolf with violet eyes. He never could remember the story surrounding the wolf, but he remembered the wolf well enough. The violet eyes were unnatural, so he couldn't provide those. But long black hair and elegant yet strong features, certainly. He quickly chose to give Lycus dark blue eyes to compliment the dark hair. He nodded in satisfaction at the end result. If Arnou the wolf had ever been human, Marvolo was certain this is what he'd look like. Minus the violet eyes.

"Nobody of importance," was the reply to Marvolo's question, but Lycus caught on to the fact that this appearance wasn't quite as randomly chosen as Marvolo's was, and brought that up, "And who might I be?"

"A wolf named Arnou. If Arnou were human." Marvolo was oddly happy with his choice of character to recreate, but Lycus did not deem it worthy to mention.

Instead, he brought up an idea, "So are we going to go by Dacarus and Arnou while we are in public?"

Marvolo found that both amusing and ingenious, which was made clear by his laugh. "Yes. Yes we are." He stowed the wand away in his own robes since he was the one who was going to be needing it in the near future, receiving no complaints from the owner, and then turned away from said amused teen. He grabbed a handful of floo powder, throwing it into the fireplace before stepping in and calling out "Leaky Cauldron."

Lycus was shaking his head as he followed his 'Dark' Lord to the Leaky Cauldron.

When he stepped out of the fireplace, Lycus found that the Dark Lord had become someone quite different than he was used to. Perhaps it was that he wasn't seeing the Dark Lord, but rather, he was seeing Dacarus. That's what he decided to believe, as this wizard was charming up a storm already, and Lycus couldn't have been more than a minute behind him.

Lycus followed suit with non-Lycus behaviour. While he didn't know anything about Arnou, he could gather a few tidbits of how he should act from both his glamoured appearance and by how Dacarus acted. If Dacarus was going to actively charm people and give them his attention, then Arnou needed to be a bit more laid-back and quiet, making sure that his friend didn't get too lost in socializing.

Lycus stepped quietly to where Marvolo was talking to the barman. Apparently, it was a conversation so exhilarating that the people around Marvolo were paying close attention to it.

"...associated with kids who skip school because of that, but there is no real correlation between the two." was what Lycus caught being said by the barman when he got close enough to hear. And as much as he wanted to continue listening to what had to be a fantastic discussion, he had a book he wanted to get back to as soon as possible, and he was sure that Marvolo didn't actually want to be talking to anyone here.

Lycus considered his approach for a few seconds. Arnou and Dacarus were supposed to be friends, or so he assumed, but it was still the Dark Lord that he would be interrupting. And he would have no way of knowing if this annoyed Marvolo until after they were away from other people.

He chose the safe route of walking up and politely clearing his throat, gaining the attention of Marvolo and the barman, which had the accidental effect of drawing all eyes on him.

He gave the people an apologetic smile before turning his attention to Marvolo, "Sorry to interrupt, Dacarus, but we don't have all day. You can always come back later."

Marvolo nodded and turned back to the barman to say goodbye. He waved at the surrounding people when walking by, receiving some farewells in return.

Marvolo turned to him when they got outside with that stupidly charming grin, "Those were lovely people, weren't they Arnou?" He started walking down the path, expecting Lycus to follow. He did.

Lycus didn't really care all that much about how lovely the people in the Leaky Cauldron were, but he wasn't supposed to be Lycus right now. Right now, he was Arnou. "Indeed, Dacarus. You wouldn't happen to be thinking about coming back to chit chat some more, would you?"

Marvolo - or rather, Dacarus - hummed in contemplation. "I'm not sure. They seemed agreeable enough, but we both know how the wizards of Britain are. Only time will tell."

Lycus agreed with that notion, catching the hidden meaning behind the statement. He hadn't expected the Leaky Cauldron to be one of the locations where they would find people who would concede their cause.

They spent some time just walking, Marvolo appearing to know where he was going, Lycus content to just follow along. It was a good ten minutes later when they made a sudden turn into an alley. It didn't take long to see why.

There was a person in the dark alley, sitting against the wall asleep, obviously homeless. The perfect target.

Marvolo once again brought out Lycus's wand and put up a few charms that would make sure they weren't disturbed. He held out his hand, to which a pendant identical to one from before was placed. He walked up to the sleeping muggle, pointed the wand at him, and spoke the words that brought death faster than any other spell, " _Avada Kedavra_."

A bright green flash flew out of the wand and hit the muggle, and it was done. Marvolo handed the pendant to Lycus, who put it on, hiding it under his shirt, as well as hiding his ever so slight disturbance at Marvolo's ease in using the killing curse. It wasn't supposed to be easy, but Marvolo didn't even need to think to use it.

The Dark Lord had a horcrux again, though this would be the only one he made unless it was broken. And if it were to be broken, that would mean that Lycus failed his most important task of all, and would be on the receiving end of every painful but non-fatal curse Marvolo knew for an undetermined amount of time. Multiple times.

Lycus understood this, of course, and would easily give his life to protect the horcrux. He would even more easily take the life of someone trying to destroy it.

Marvolo handed Lycus his wand back and strode out of the alley, going back in the direction they came from.

"Shall we be going to pick up a temporary wand for you?" Lycus asked, walking alongside Marvolo now as he knew where they were headed.

He received a nod in response, as well as a location, "We will go to Ollivander's. Let's hope he doesn't recognize me." Marvolo smirked at that thought. "If he does, I'm sure he'll be too shocked to defend against any oncoming curses."

Even if Ollivander wasn't shocked enough to be rendered an easy target, Lycus knew it was still expected of him to be able to react quick enough to prevent Ollivander from doing anything. This included putting up charms that would defend against people knowing what was going on, as well as fire curses at Ollivander to render him dead. His training should see that as an easy accomplishment, but he knew to never be careless enough to rely on skill alone. You're skill and speed in casting spells doesn't matter if you don't pay attention to when you need to cast them.

The two "friends" spoke about trivial things on the way back to the Leaky Cauldron. More specifically, Lycus asked what Marvolo and the barman were talking about, finding that it was about an Irish pastry known as Gur cake. How that pastry and kids skipping school became associated, he had no idea, but apparently they were.

They entered the Leaky Cauldron, drawing a few eyes. Dacarus was kind enough to let them know ahead of time that he was simply passing through and couldn't stay to chat. They went out the back, and Lycus tapped the familiar pattern on the brick wall, opening up Diagon Alley.

Lycus had never liked loud bustling places, and Diagon Alley was certainly one of them. Therefore, he didn't like Diagon Alley. Marvolo, thankfully, found no pleasure in hanging out in Diagon Alley for longer than necessary either, and they promptly found themselves arriving at Ollivander's.

The man well known for his spooking of children was nowhere to be seen among the musty and dusty shop. Probably hiding in the back for a poor unsuspecting soul to try and terrify. Or maybe he was sleeping. He was a wandmaker, and it was likely very rare for people to come in all that often during winter. Hibernating would be a completely understandable course of action to avoid being bored out of his damn mind.

The two waited patiently for the old wizened man to come out of hiding. By come out of hiding, it is of course meant that Ollivander appeared abruptly from the shadows, creeping towards the counter while staring intently at the two wizards.

"Ah, a customer. Looking for a temporary wand. No matter. Are you right handed or left? Hold your arms out, please, I need to take a few measurements."

Marvolo complied, not bothering to question the old man about how he knew he was looking for a temporary wand. Typical Ollivander. It was even more typical that the wandmaker paid no heed to the tape measure doing its measurements, instead simply pulling out a few boxes and placing them on the counter, to then put them all back and pull out one particular box that seemed to be making noise.

"Temporary wands tend to be easier to match as they are not going to stay with you. However, might I incline you to perhaps consider taking a permanent wand? This one seems to be very interested in you." Ollivander gave Marvolo a sophic smile as he took the wand from the box. It was humming.

Confusion was apparent on Dacarus's face as he took the wand from Ollivander. It reacted to Dacarus's touch with a flashing of light and a cessation of that hum.

"Vine is a curious material that no other wandmaker uses. It is much more sensitive to magic than any other type of wood, making it able to detect a suitable witch or wizard by simply being near it. I dare say that this wand has chosen to be yours, regardless of whether you meant to leave with a permanent wand." was the given explanation. An explanation that was very much appreciated by the other two wizards.

But Ollivander had another thing to say, something that he hoped would convince this customer to keep the wand, "It's core is of unicorn hair, the most loyal and consistent of the cores. If you choose not to keep it, the unicorn hair within is likely to deteriorate."

Marvolo looked up at Ollivander at the mention of the core being unicorn hair. Lycus didn't know whether to laugh at the idea of the Dark Lord having a wand with unicorn hair choose him, or to rub the bridge of his nose in silent pity. He settled on neither, though was still laughing a little bit on the inside.

Dacarus slowly nodded his head in understanding. "I see. In that case, I suppose I'll have to keep it. It'd be cruel to do otherwise." He paid the fee to a happy Ollivander and left the shop with Lycus close behind.

Lycus had a playful smirk on his face, though he didn't say anything. He wouldn't risk the wrath of Marvolo over a few teasing quips. Marvolo still caught on to his amusement, awarding Lycus with a half-hearted glare. In all his training of self control, Lycus had never thought that it would end up including controlling his laughter. He appeased himself knowing that he could laugh all he wanted when in the manor, rooms and floors away from Marvolo.

Instead of heading towards the Leaky Cauldron, as Lycus expected, they maneuvered their way to Magical Menagerie. He supposed that it may be because Magical Menagerie has a floo connection, but there was always a chance that the Dark Lord just wanted a pet. Or to look at the cute puffskeins.

Marvolo was going in the direction of the floo, but paused next to a cage. Without looking, he addressed Lycus, "Arnou, you wouldn't happen to have a decent amount of money on you right now, would you?"

Lycus approached Marvolo and the cage with curiosity as to what could be so intriguing that Marvolo may actually want to buy it. "I am prepared for all occasions, Dacarus. This includes spur of the moment shopping. I doubt that whatever it is you're looking at will be a problem to pay for."

It was a relatively delighted grin that was returned at this information. "Good. Otherwise I would have sent you to go get enough for this." Marvolo turned towards the counter where the sales lady was standing, blushing and constantly glancing up and down at him. He put on his charming grin and walked over to see about buying whatever was in the cage. It was apparent, even without hearing the conversation, that it wasn't for sale.

As Dacarus was charming the sales lady into letting him buy whatever was in the cage, Lycus took a look for himself at what had Marvolo so excited. He wasn't disappointed, as he was greeted with the slim angular head of an indigo snake. A snake that was super cute. What was better than that, however, were the telltale protrusions on the snakes head: four little horns were growing out of the top of its head, two on each side, the ones in front slightly smaller than the ones in back. The horns were ivory in colour, and could only be a couple centimeters in length at most. The snake itself was probably only about eight inches long. But what truly caught Lycus's attention was the marquise shaped periwinkle gem in the center of its forehead, which matched the colour of its eyes. Eyes that were staring right back at Lycus. He couldn't help but smile at the cute creature.

It didn't take a Ravenclaw to know that this was no ordinary snake, but it did take more than the average British wizard to know that this was a horned serpent. They were native to North America, so seeing one here in Britain was a bit of a shock. Lycus wondered how they got their hands on one.

Dacarus walked over with a look that let Lycus know he won the right to buy the horned serpent. Lycus shook his head in disbelief - no amount of charm would ever make him sell a horned serpent in his possession - and made his own way over to the counter to pay while Marvolo took the cute little snake out of the cage. The sales lady was still eying Dacarus when he got to the counter.

Ignoring the lady's reaction to Dacarus, he casually asked how much it would cost, handing over the given amount. It was way too low of a price in his opinion, but he purported that she had no idea just how valuable horned serpents were.

With Marvolo a much happier man with his cute little snake wrapped around his wrist, they flooed back to the manor.

They arrived in the main parlour, glamours melting away as they did, finding Lycus's mother lounging on a sofa reading a book. Book reading may or may not run in the family. She looked up at the entrance of the Dark Lord and her son, a smile appearing on her face once she recognized who came through the fireplace.

"Welcome back, my Lord. It is good to see you back in your body." She turned her sights on her son right after that comment, making a playful jibe at his expense, "I hope that my son has proven useful for you now that you don't have to rely on him to carry you around, otherwise I will have wasted fifteen years of my life."

Lycus gave her a dry look, followed by a rolling of the eyes. Marvolo replied with an impish grin, ready to tease the poor teen along with her. "Lycus has proven adequate so far. Even his wand was agreeable with me. I don't suppose you'd know just how agreeable the wand that you gave him would be?"

Villa laughed at Lycus's somewhat reddening face, but wasn't willing to continue the joke quite that far, "I'm afraid not, my Lord. If you want to find a mother who can answer that, you'll have to go to the Goyles. But I'm sure Lycus would have no issue in letting you find out if it so pleases you."

Both of the males shuddered at the implication that the Goyles were actively incestuous, and Lycus was partially covering his face with one hand by pinching the bridge of his nose as a way to act as if nobody could see him blushing.

He found that he did not enjoy being a room that housed both his mother and his Lord.

Marvolo glanced at Lycus with a mischievous look, "That is an enticing thought, Villa. I might just have to go through with it, too." His eyes were the only thing that betrayed the fact that this was merely jest, as was his next sentence. "But alas, I find myself in need of tending to a serpent, and shall have to hold that thought for later."

With that, he strolled out of the parlour, hissing to the snake that was wrapped around his wrist.

Lycus threw his mother a light scowl as he left the parlour himself, intent on finding one of her scrolls on death before your time. For research purposes only, of course.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Now that I can start implementing this, it's a good idea to mention that I'll be responding to reviews at the end of each chapter, unless my reply is going to be super long, at which point I will reply directly. Both for questions and general comments, but questions have priority of course.

Enjoy.

* * *

Spectres had a meagre ability to communicate, which is why the Valerians were only so knowledgeable of what their Dark Lord had plans for. At least, that's what Lycus's parents thought. Of the three members of the Valerian household, Lycus had easily spent way more time around the Dark Lord's spectre than his parents did, even when combined. Marvolo had been sitting on his chest for the better part of five months with nothing to do but talk to Lycus, and that didn't include the brief communications they shared while Marvolo was still Voldemort.

His parents may not know much about the Dark Lord's plans, but he did. He wondered just how much his Lord was going to reveal about said plans to his parents.

Marvolo took a sip of his tea, knowing exactly how much he was going to tell. "I need connections in as many places as possible ready to perform when I tell them."

It looked to Lycus like maybe the Dark Lord wasn't going to be revealing any plans, per say. Just give them orders. He was almost surprised, but concealing your plans was something that a smart Dark Lord would do in his opinion.

Anton gave a measured nod. Lycus knew what he was thinking. Between his father's family being from Norway, his mother's being from Russia, and both being prominent pureblood families, it was child's play to have widespread connections.

But Marvolo's condition for those people would throw that thought right out the window, "They must be magical creature sympathizers."

Now, Britain had a major problem in and of itself when it came to degrading magical creatures, but they weren't the only ones. Few countries had governments or beliefs that allowed magical creatures to have rights and freedoms, and even then, they often didn't want to be giving those rights and freedoms away. The only country that truly held a medium of respect towards non wizards and witches was Australia. Which probably had something to do with the fact that the magical creatures in Australia were also part of the muggle world and they could threaten exposure of the magical world if displeased.

The teen knew most of his parents' contacts himself, and could count the number of magical creature sympathizers among them on his fingers. This assignment would not be so simple.

His father took a moment to contemplate this aspect before responding, "Is there a timeframe within which we have to have these contacts?"

Marvolo took another sip of tea, treating the conversation as though it were trivial. "By the time summer begins. I want at least twenty countries with at least one contact within each of them. We will be starting small. There is no need to rush right now."

Anton and Villa were, understandably, confused. Had Lycus spent the same amount of time with the Dark Lord as they had, he would be too. Voldemort was not known to be patient, either before or after his first defeat. This impatience was exactly the reason behind why he was defeated the two times he was. Had he waited until his spy figured out the rest of the prophecy, he wouldn't have gone in and been killed by a baby. If he hadn't possessed Quirrell, Dumbledore wouldn't have known he had come back yet. If he hadn't instructed Lucius Malfoy to put his diary in Hogwarts, he wouldn't have lost half his soul permanently. Lycus could go on and on about Voldemort's stupidity. But that was precisely it. That was Voldemort.

What his parents didn't recognize was that their Lord was no longer Voldemort. He was Marvolo, who had learned the first time he died that he shouldn't be so brash. That was Gryffindor behaviour, and even Harry Potter, the Golden Gryffin, had been more prepared and crafty than he.

Lycus could tell that his parents wanted to know why they needed to do this, but they didn't ask. Their only answer to the given timeframe was a simple "Yes, my Lord."

Marvolo sipped his tea again, a motion in which allowed for Empress, the horned serpent, to nudge his face. His lips twitched, but he was able to prevent the smile.

"These contacts do not need to do anything yet, I just need them to be available. We will begin operations during summer. I will require a list of definite followers by the end of March."

Anton and Villa affirmed their compliance with Marvolo's orders with another "Yes, my Lord."

Empress weaved her way around Marvolo's moving fingers for what Lycus could only assume was fun. It's not as though there was much for an eight inch baby snake to do. Marvolo waved his free hand to dismiss the two, leaving just him, Empress, and Lycus in the room.

"How many days are left for winter break?" the Dark Lord asked, eyes following the path Empress was taking rather than looking at the teen in question.

Lycus was also interested in watching the cute battle worm, who he never saw unless around Marvolo, but didn't allow himself the pleasure of doing so. Becoming complacent at home would make him complacent in public. "Eleven days."

"Good. We need to make a trip to Gringotts soon. I want you to review your notes on the Ministry and goblin history before we do." This time, Marvolo did look up at him, appearing keen to gage his reaction.

Lycus blinked, the only thing that betrayed his surprise. He hadn't expected for his Lord to set his plans in motion until after a number of possible followers had been established. "I see. When do you want the appointment to be set?"

A hand was waved again, though in an unconcerned manner rather as a dismissal, "By Thursday. It doesn't matter who it's with."

"And the other thing?"

The Dark Lord acknowledged Lycus's ability to recognize that he still had something on his mind with an eyebrow raise. "I have an assignment for you for when you are at Hogwarts. There are a few magical creatures that reside in and around Hogwarts, and I want you to meet with them to begin making relations."

Ah. That was not what Lycus was expecting. When Marvolo spoke of his plans to ally with the magical creatures of the world, he didn't think that Marvolo meant to befriend them. He thought that they were going to publically push for magical creatures to have rights and freedoms. That this wasn't the case, or at least not yet, told Lycus that he needed to operate under the radar at Hogwarts. With OWLs and now this, he had his work cut out for him.

"I understand. And what's the last thing?" his question further demonstrated Lycus's aptitude to know what people were thinking, though how he was doing that, Marvolo wasn't sure.

This earned him a glare from Marvolo, although it held no real irritation, "The last thing is something that I haven't decided on yet. It is of no concern of yours until I do. You are dismissed."

Lycus voted against continuing to antagonize Marvolo, unsure of just how far he'd be allowed to go now that Marvolo was no longer a harmless spectre. Instead, he opted to go write a letter to Gringotts.

* * *

Lycus was sure that the glamours wouldn't hold up over the bank's magic. Wizards knew next to nothing about goblin magic, so there was no way of knowing how to get around it, while goblins knew quite a bit about wizard magic, and could get around it no problem.

His suspicion was confirmed when the bank teller peered at them in a way that made him feel like he was being seen through. Because he was.

The goblin asked a question in both a polite and curt manner, the way only goblins can, "Business?"

Dacarus gave the teller a smile, not bothered in the slightest, "We have a meeting with Gnarlob."

The goblin returned Dacarus's smile with a bored look and an equally bored "Follow me." Asking for the goblin by name was enough to prove that the two wizards weren't ad-libbing, and if he didn't have to waste time looking through files to confirm what he already knew, he wouldn't.

He put up a line closed sign before stepping down to lead them farther into Gringotts. Lycus had, of course, been in Gringotts many times before, but it was only ever to visit a vault. This was a completely new experience that left him positive that the goblins made everything in Gringotts as confusing and unpleasant as possible to annoy their human patrons. He didn't know what would be worse: riding in a cart that was bound to fall but having no idea when, or being left in a maze of winding corridors that you would never escape. Both were equally possible when it came to dealing with an irate goblin.

The two wizards accompanied the goblin through those winding corridors - corridors that Lycus was sure he had been through multiple times before reaching their destination. Their guide opened the seemingly unlocked door, though it probably was, and presented them to the goblin whose name was displayed on a nameplate as Gnarlob.

Not big on flashy formalities between one another saw the bank teller heading back to his position after a quick look from Gnarlob, who proceeded to invite Marvolo and Lycus to sit in the chairs in front of his desk, along with a request to remove their glamours. Marvolo did so without protest. If the goblins recognized who he was, they did not say.

Gnarlob was a goblin who dealt more with the market and the Ministry rather than money or metal, and had adapted to the human preference of polite and drawn out meetings long ago. That being said, he did not have much experience in dealing with humans that didn't come from the Ministry, and especially not ones who felt the need to mask their identity. The letter he was shown was addressed to 'Whom it may concern', and was signed as 'Dacarus and Arnou'.

Normally Gnarlob would never take an appointment with someone who did not meet formality standards, but in this case, the informality was precisely the reason behind his curiosity. And because of this odd situation, he wasn't sure how to approach them.

Luckily for him and Marvolo, who wasn't so well versed in traditional introductions as he was in commanding people, Lycus had it all under control, "Good evening, Gnarlob. My name is Arnou, and this is my associate Dacarus. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us on such short notice."

Gnarlob tilted his down in acknowledgement, "A pleasure to meet you, Arnou. As I am sure you know, my name is Gnarlob. May I ask why you have decided to come disguised and under false names?"

Lycus deferred to Marvolo for the answer, not wanting to give away more information than wanted. "I am sure that what we have come to discuss will be a sufficient answer to that question."

The goblin quirked an eyebrow. This was turning out to be much more different than his usual visits. His interest was piqued enough to not throw them out of his office yet. He may be used to working with stupid humans, but he was still a goblin.

Gnarlob resolved to take a slightly more goblin-intuitive approach to these two by being more brusque than he was with the Ministry ponces, "Very well. And what have you come to discuss?"

This question focused more on what Marvolo was there for, and therefore he was the one to answer, "Put simply, we want to discuss Ministry laws and regulations on goblins. A more difficult explanation falls along the lines of wanting to work with you to change those laws and regulations."

It didn't take Lycus's talent for reading people to see that this intrigued and surprised the goblin. It wasn't everyday that humans came in to say 'Let's be nicer to goblins.'

"Why should I care about what you think you can do?" Gnarlob, rightfully, didn't believe that these two could have any effect on the Ministry's beliefs. The only thing that stopped him from ending the pointless conversation right there was the smirk he was given in return.

"It's not what we think we can do in the Ministry that we want to talk about. It's what we will be doing to the Ministry that we believe you will have an interest in."

Gnarlob pursed his lips, ever more curious about the reason these two came here. They both seemed so confident at that statement that he was inclined to believe that they had plans for doing this already, ones they could actually achieve. It was either that, or they were mad.

Marvolo continued before Gnarlob had the chance to reply, "We don't expect you to agree with us and be on board after just one meeting. This is just to set up relations for further correspondence. Of course, we do hope to eventually gain your trust and confidence, but for now we understand that is not possible."

Goblins were canny creatures, yet he had allowed the wizards more than a few minutes already for something that he thought was a lost cause. He took this to mean that his intuition was saying hear them out. He trusted his intuition - it never steered him wrong - but he had learned in his years working for the Goblin Liaison Office that you should never put your faith in anyone that couldn't prove they were able to think ahead of the game.

Just because they came here seeking to help the goblins didn't mean they were able to, and certainly didn't mean that they knew what they were doing themselves. Chances are they wanted to help but had no idea how. He attacked that point. "How are you going to change the Ministry?"

Lycus was once again the one that held the information needed to illustrate their means, "We know the laws that the Ministry had placed upon not only you, but every magical creature. We know them probably more than they know themselves, and just how outlandish and absurd they are. We want to recreate their regulations on magical creatures in accordance to your needs, not human fears. We understand that not all creatures are intelligent enough to think for themselves, and those creatures will be fairly handled based on their needs as well."

So maybe they did some research and had some ideals. That still didn't prove to Gnarlob that they had a clue about what it would take to achieve those ideals, or even what those ideals would mean if they were attained. "How do you plan on accomplishing this?"

Marvolo stepped back in for this, "You have your reservations, we have ours. Forgive any disrespect, but until we know that we can trust you, that is something that you cannot know."

Gnarlob leaned back in his chair and pressed his fingers together, evaluating that statement. It could either mean that they didn't have any plans, and were being clever about not revealing this, or their plans were the type that needed to be covert. If the second one was the case, than Gnarlob could guess that recreating the laws would take place after some demolishment. He found himself hoping for the second one. That he was hoping for anything at all was disturbing.

He allowed them their secrecy, instead looking for chinks in their knowledge again, "You say reconstruct the laws. In what way?"

Bringing out his notes on goblin history and the Ministry's laws would be a bit senseless, but Lycus remembered them well enough, "There are few things that we humans know about goblin culture, but one of those things is very distinct. It is always hard to please everybody, but I can assure you on three rights that we would provide for goblins once we can change the Ministry's laws - the right to use wands, the right to own property, and the right to claim any and all items that you made once the people who bought it have died."

Gnarlob felt a jolt of shock go through him at the last sentence even while he retaining his stoic exterior. Goblins held the belief that the maker was the true owner, not the buyer, and buying something was simply a way of renting it. That piece of culture was not one that many wizards knew, much less believed to be true. That these two would consider it something that would be made into a right for the goblins was a great boost in his opinion of them. Not to mention that it made it very clear that they did indeed know what their plans entailed.

His goblin nature was elated at that thought, but he squashed the feeling instantly. There was no guarantee that these two wizards could actually do anything to change the Ministry, and there were other issues that needed tending before he could even begin to put his trust in them, much less bring the notion to his superiors.

He took a few moments to think, and Lycus and Marvolo allowed him. He needed to weigh the pros and cons of continuing to speak with them. On one hand, if these two really could pull it off, the goblins would be given the respect and rights they deserved. Passing up that opportunity would see him beheaded if anyone in the goblin nation found out. On the other hand, if anyone found out that wasn't a goblin, he would be beheaded so Gringotts didn't face trial for having a goblin who was actively conspiring against the Ministry. And this is without considering the possibility that they didn't even have any plans. Gnarlob would be putting blind faith in them.

If he put faith in them. He didn't need to do that just yet. "Until I decide that this is worth more than the words being spoken, I will give you nothing more than more words."

That was all Marvolo needed to hear before he was showing off his teeth in a pleasant grin, "That's all I ask for."

Lycus took the reigns of control for the departure by standing up and bowing his head slightly in respect towards the goblin, "It was a pleasure to meet you, Gnarlob. I hope to continue building a partnership between us and I look forward to our next meeting. Have a good evening." This pretty much covered for both him and Marvolo, so all Marvolo had to do was stand and bow his head as well.

Gnarlob bowed his head back but said nothing as the two wizards donned their glamours and left.

* * *

With only three days left of winter break, Lycus was happily doing what he loved to do. Reading. He was able to finish a stupid book on self transfiguration and had since moved onto a book about animagi and metamorphmagi. This one was not only more extensive, but much more interesting. As a little side project, he was going to start looking into becoming an animagus and skillful in the art of self transfiguration. Self transfiguration would be his main focus as being able to give yourself gills, wings, different appearances that weren't glamour based, and various other practical features was extremely advantageous. An animagus form would provide limited advantages, if any at all.

But when you have a Dark Lord around, reading was sure to be disrupted. Perhaps Lycus could be reading in his room or workshop, but he made it a point to be readily available to Marvolo by either being in the library or one of the lounges.

Today he was in a lounge, appropriately lounging on one of the modular loveseats. Today was also a day the Dark Lord saw fit to interact with him instead of doing what a Dark Lord normally does.

Marvolo took a seat across from him, Empress laying over the back of his neck, far too little to properly coil around it. Lycus didn't bother checking to see who had entered, knowing who it was from the way his pendant stirred slightly from its non-slumber at the presence of Marvolo. He closed his book and sat up to find Marvolo appearing to be in contemplation. A contemplation that took a few minutes to end.

When it did, Marvolo gave Lycus an appraising look and spoke, "You're privy to a lot of things that your parents aren't. What do you think of this?"

Lycus shrugged, "It's not my place to decide what you tell or don't tell and to whom."

Marvolo expression let Lycus know that that wasn't the answer he was looking for, and amended this by adding his personal thoughts, "My parents defied you once by refusing to take the Dark Mark. In my opinion, this was the correct thing to do, and the Dark Mark is nothing but a flag that says 'Arrest me'. In their opinion, they made a mistake and would never do it again."

He wasn't sure if he should continue, but Marvolo didn't speak, letting his gaze indicate that he should. "They will do as you say without question, even if they want to question you. I doubt they would have responded to your question any differently than I, except they wouldn't have been able to follow it up with their own opinions in fear of defying you once more."

This still didn't ease Marvolo's gaze, making Lycus sigh. If Marvolo wanted to hear what he thought that much, he would, of course, give in to him, "My parents don't need to be told anything but what to do, because they will never do anything but what they're told."

While this appeased Marvolo's initial curiosity, it brought up a completely new one. "Can you elaborate?"

Oh yes, Lycus could elaborate. He could go on for a decent amount of time about his parents' ability to serve their Lord, and that's without beating around the bush he just did. To avoid annoying his Lord, Lycus decided to try and keep it concise, "You can tell them all of your plans, but they would never think to make contacts with people around the world who can help in carrying them out. They wouldn't think to tell me to contact the magical creatures of Hogwarts, and they most definitely wouldn't think about going to the goblins. They'd sit there and wait for you to tell them what to do because they're too afraid of fucking up to do anything themselves."

He huffed, clearly irritated with his parents, which Marvolo found amusing to say the least. Marvolo also now understood what Lycus was saying, though he just had to ask one more thing.

"Isn't that all my followers are supposed to do? Follow my orders?"

Lycus rolled his eyes as though that question made no sense. "We wouldn't be having this conversation if you believed that yourself."

This reply left Marvolo wondering how Anton and Villa raised a son who was willing to be this snarky towards him when they were apparently terrified of disobeying him. Nevertheless, Marvolo had already made up his mind that he didn't mind it, presuming it stayed within reason. Dark Lords need friendly banter sometimes, too.

Speaking of, Marvolo found this moment a good one to transition into some friendly banter now that he got that curiosity out of the way, starting with a topic of utmost concern to someone like Lycus, "What's this new book about?"

Amber eyes lit up, displaying every bit of stereotypical Ravenclaw bookishness within them. Marvolo briefly considered that this question was perhaps better left unasked, but the topic of the book convinced him that this was not the case.

"Animagi and metamorphmagi. It covers details of both that I haven't found in any other book and gives shortcuts to the otherwise deadening processes required to become either of them."

Marvolo had an interest in becoming animagus once, but that interest had long since dwindled away. The amount of time it took made the end result not worth trying to achieve. Place a mandrake leaf under his tongue for a month? He had better things to do. He had never thought of becoming a metamorphmagus, though, because he had been under the impression that you couldn't.

That thought was expressed as another question, "I thought you had to be born a metamorphmagus?"

Lycus's smirk let Marvolo know that he had expected that question. "While true that people we consider a metamorphmagus are born with the ability, that ability is simply a natural understanding of self transfiguration. Things like turning a matchstick into a needle can be as natural as breathing if you practice enough. The same goes for self transfiguration, just like any branch of magic."

"So you're going to learn how to become a metamorphmagus?"

Ravenclaw colours shone true as he nodded. Leave it to a Ravenclaw to find a way to do the impossible by reading something. "I'll probably never get to the level of someone born one, but yes. It'll certainly take a long time, but I won't have to wait a year to get any result whatsoever like I will with becoming an animagus."

Marvolo felt like it was question after question, because it was, and was asking himself a question of if this is what happened when you talked to a Ravenclaw about something they knew and you didn't. He imagined it was the other way around if you knew what you were talking about, and they didn't. A constant barrage of questions didn't sound any more pleasant than constantly asking questions.

"You're becoming an animagus, too?"

Once again, Lycus was clearly expecting this. It was beginning to look like Dacarus may be the charmer, but Arnou will be the one who actually controls the situation. What happened to Marvolo's Slytherin side? Shouldn't he be the one manipulating conversations like this? And not having to ask so many questions. Of himself or anyone else, as he was right now.

"Eventually. There is little reason beyond flying and invisibility to do so, but unlike most wizards and witches, at least I have those." his continued smirk let Marvolo knew that he was expecting another question, one which Marvolo did have but could answer himself this time.

Lycus's animagus was a thestral. Which then begged the question: "How do you know what you are?"

If the skip in question line surprised Lycus, it didn't show, "Most wizards and witches have an animagus form based their personality or magic, in the case that they have an animagus form at all. Wizards that become werewolves or vampires or are born a veela, among other things along those lines, don't have an animagus form, because they already have an alternate body. I don't have an alternate body, and my magic is tied with thestrals, which means that no matter what, I will have a thestral animagus."

This time, if Marvolo was surprised, he didn't let it show. All of his thoughts could be summed up into one final question, "How?"

"Simple. My parents performed a would-be-illegal ritual if anyone knew about it, binding my magic to that of a thestral." Lycus gave a sly smile, knowing, even if it wasn't visible on Marvolo's face, just how confused the Dark Lord was. He would admit that even he wasn't entirely sure what happened - the ritual was performed when he was a baby, so he didn't remember it. All he knew was that it happened, it worked, and his parents did it because they thought it would make him more useful.

"Simple," was all Marvolo had to say to that. He would need time to think about it before deciding to ask anything else. One question just led to another. He didn't want to be asking questions for much longer, so decided to drop the subject.

Thankfully, the next inquiry was directed at Marvolo instead of by him, "Something else on your mind?"

The ever so slight drop in Marvolo's shoulders let Lycus know that he successfully annoyed his Lord by knowing his thoughts. "Yes, there is. I have another project for you to do while at Hogwarts. I need you to come up with a way to contact me that is undetectable and quick, and doesn't require you to go through Anton or Villa. The sooner the better, but don't let it hinder your progression with your other job."

So now Lycus had OWLs, befriending at least four different groups of magical creatures, self teaching self transfiguration, and inventing a new method of communication to keep up with at Hogwarts. Let it never be said that the Dark Lord was languid. Lycus was going to need to get his hands on a time turner.

The teen sighed, dreading the end of winter break for once, but didn't let the sigh speak for itself, "Of course, Marvolo. In fact, I'll go get started on that right now." He stood up, ready to go to the library to begin research. He supposed he could always put self transfiguration off until next year, if not after the plans were completed. If he did that, he was sure he'd end up putting self transfiguration off until he was twenty.

* * *

Joshua the Arcanis: I would agree that it's been more humourous than adventurous so far, but the first two chapters were mostly plot set up. Even so, the day that I write a chapter fully devoid of humour is the day that a snowball survives the sun. I'm glad you like the story so far, and here you go.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N My apologies for being somewhat long, but at the same time, as I get more into the story, the chapters are kinda just gonna get long.

So, I've got a couple of things to note here before I let y'all get to it. One: as a reader of fanfiction, one of the things that annoys the ever loving shit out of me is OP characters. Lycus is not going to be OP because of the thestral animagus thing. He may not ever get around to becoming an animagus, either. This is just in case anybody thought that was going to happen in this story. Two: I wrote the first chapter two years ago at a time when I would write something that was four to twenty pages in one go, and then never go back to it. I have at least thirty "stories" like this for Harry Potter alone. My writing has changed a lot since then, so... it's not the best example of my writing. If you've continued reading this far despite the decently bad first chapter and awkward second chapter, you have my thanks. That being said, I have gone back and changed them to better fit my current style of writing, so maybe they weren't so cringey to you, depending on when you began reading this.

Enjoy.

* * *

Lycus had officially decided to put off his metamorphmagus training in favour of researching all known magical and muggle ways of communication, at least until he had the communication thing done. Ravenclaws were known as the most intelligent house, but gaining knowledge only takes you so far. He needed to invent something, and invention would require much more than simple information. He needed to make a completely new method of communication, which required trial and error that no amount of research could accommodate.

In the three days he had before winter break ended but after being told about this new mission, he was unable to acquire a time turner. It was unlikely he'd be able to just get one now that he was on his way to Hogwarts. He had, however, been given eleven days to think about what magical creatures he would talk to at Hogwarts, and how he would approach them.

His first thought went to the centaurs. Firenze was already within the castle, teaching Divination, so finding out how to contact the herd was just a conversation away. Lycus knew the dispute centaurs had with the Ministry was far greater than that of almost any other magical creatures, and that they hate humans. Contacting them risked death since he was no longer quite young enough to be considered a child. But they were absolutely fed up with the Ministry constantly reducing the land they had in the Forbidden Forest, so the possibility of being able to get back at the Ministry may appeal to them enough to prevent that. They would be the easiest to contact, yet anything but the easiest to talk to.

Centaurs weren't the only creatures within the forest that had intelligence. There were acromantulas in there as well, and if Lycus was correct, their colony father could speak English. Acromantulas were about as neutral as you could get when it came to magical creatures. Death Eaters, students, professors, muggles, all of them were just considered food to the acromantulas. To step into their nest would be practical suicide. Maybe if he could get his hands on a basilisk, he could threaten them into listening, but that was never going to happen. If Lycus was going to tackle the acromantulas, he'd need to get help.

Then there were the selkies of the Black Lake. They lived at the bottom of the lake, and would be more difficult to access. Not only that, but they had a good relationship with Dumbledore and seemed very content to live at the bottom of the Black Lake. To speak to them was one thing; to befriend them was another. What could Lycus offer that they did not already have? A bigger lake? They didn't want one. The only thing he could think of was something he would be telling the centaurs - that they would be able to partake in the Ministry without being associated with creatures such as vampires and hags. They _did_ want to be part of those labeled 'Being' by the Ministry, but refused because of that association with those darker creatures. Surely they held some form of resentment because of this that he could build off of.

And then he thought about the house elves, who would be by far the most powerful ally, and the most difficult to convince to side with 'Dacarus.' They were loyal to Hogwarts, Lycus would never try to take them away from the castle. He didn't need them to stop being house elves, he just needed their support in what Marvolo was doing. Unlike the rest of the magical creatures, house elves didn't care for promises of rights, because they didn't want any. They were the most likely to report anything he said to Dumbledore, too. If he went at the house elves alone, and people found out, he would be immediately brought under attention, and attention was the last thing he needed when doing this.

There was one thing he could think of that may help him in staying covert when it came to interacting with the house elves - S.P.E.W. That stupid organization made by Hermione Granger. She had a nice reason for it, but she also had no idea what she was promoting. Hermione was a muggle-born, who saw creatures that could speak English being used as servants to magic folk, and instantly assumed that this meant the house elves were being enslaved. This was one of the few things that displayed why Hermione Granger was not put into Ravenclaw. She had so much heart sometimes that she forgot to think.

But if Lycus could talk to her... explain the situation behind house elves, and convince her to change how she was going about it... well, not only will Lycus have a cover, but nobody would expect him to be affiliated with anything related to the dark or the late Dark Lord. Hermione was very outspoken and adamant on helping magical creatures gain rights as though it was her purpose in life. She was smart enough to know that she could only do so much without the help of someone else who had influence within the wizarding world. Lycus could offer that help. Who knows, maybe she'd even be willing to help with the other magical creatures if he told her about their misgivings with the Ministry.

Lycus would, of course, need to ask Marvolo for permission first. He could think of a few reasons for why Hermione would be a benefit to them that may be able to convince Marvolo to let him at least try. If Hermione didn't seem like she would be able to keep a secret, or like she was catching on to the reality behind Lycus's reasons for wanting to help the magical creatures, he could always just obliviate her.

He was sorted into Ravenclaw, while Hermione wasn't, for a reason. He should be able to make sure she'd stay in line.

* * *

Lycus was probably biased when he said that thestrals were magnificent creatures. They had dragon-like triangular heads with small horns on the top of their head, and bright ghostly eyes that looked like orbs filled with white smoke, contrasting wonderfully with their dark unsaturated skin. They were one of the most graceful and delicate creatures he had ever met, while retaining a sharp strength unlike any other. They were so majestic.

Once again, probably biased.

It didn't help that the only other person who shared even a little bit of this sentiment was Luna Lovegood, who didn't really have a great name in credibility. She was a lovely and delightful person, her mannerisms and preferred topics of conversation just led to her being considered a bit out of it. She certainly seemed out of it, though Lycus considered that to be part of her charm. She was more interesting than anyone else could ever hope to be because of it.

Lycus boarded one of the available carriages for students returning from their winter holidays, very ready to get back to Ravenclaw tower where people understood the importance of reading and wouldn't interrupt him. He was joined by two others, the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor pair known as the Patil twins. He knew Padma well enough, being another Ravenclaw, but not so much her sister.

Not that you needed to know Parvati for her to talk up a storm for you, which he supposed made the pair very good in social situations with strangers. Parvati could bring people in, and Padma could make sure they didn't run away.

Padma greeted him when boarding the carriage before her sister could, "Hello, Lycus. How was your break?"

He smiled at the twins amiably, "It was rather uneventful, unfortunately. What about yours? I heard you got to travel to the Maldives."

Naturally, Parvati took up the lead in the conversation, detailing their trip to the Maldives almost enough for Lycus to imagine having been there himself. She was very good at illustrating her experiences, whether because she was used to doing that, or it was natural to her. Lycus wondered if she was going to become a journalist or authour. If she could write the way she spoke, she would be very successful in either of those occupations.

Arriving at Hogwarts saw them separate as Parvati headed off to join her friend Lavender Brown, saying a quick goodbye to the two Ravenclaws.

"Sorry about that Lycus. It's your fault for asking about it, though." Padma said once her sister was out of earshot.

Lycus laughed agreeably, "Yes, my mistake. It was an interesting tale, though. Does the ocean really look like 'luminous crystalline turquoise sand' that 'spans to the great canvas encompassing a spectrum of rich colours from both the sky and the sea'?"

Padma groaned, much to Lycus's amusement, clearly embarrassed for her sister. "She's not... wrong. She just embellishes a little."

They began the walk to the Great Hall, but Lycus wasn't going to let her drop the subject. "I think she has a talent in using words to captivate people. Do you know if she's thought about being an authour?"

This caused Padma to stop in her tracks, almost forcing someone to bump into her before she started walking again. "Parvati? An authour? Sure, she can describe things better than anyone else I've met, but she'd never- okay, maybe she would. She's constantly reading magazines and would love to work for Teen Witch Weekly if she could. I don't think she's ever thought about pursuing a job like that though."

"Maybe you should mention it to her. There are plenty of witches out there who can't travel. If she published her own magazine about her experiences, she's bound to build up a subscriber base."

The Indian witch had a pensive look as she thought about this. Lycus sported a teasing grin at his next line, "And if she's anywhere near as captivating in a bathing suit as she is with words, I'm sure she'd build a great male fanbase as well. It's a win win situation really."

He laughed as she hit his shoulder, rubbing it in mock pain.

Padma regained her regality quickly, "You're right-" she glared at Lycus for saying "I know" and interrupting her, "-and I think I'll mention it to her. Though I'll be keeping some of those thoughts a secret."

They continued conversing to the Great Hall, picking up Michael Corner along the way, and seating themselves at Ravenclaw table amongst the rest of their peers. Dumbledore welcomed the students back, and they all tucked in.

After dinner, Lycus didn't remain in the common room to continue socializing with friends, claiming he had to catch up on reading. Which was true enough, he just didn't mention what kind of reading.

He had taken a few books from the family library and was hoping to talk to Terry Boot about muggle methods of communication - furtively, of course. He would be claiming that he was interested in communication via magic ever since Hermione used the Protean charm on some small disks to allow Professor Tonks to tell her students when they would next meet for extra defense tuition. After Merlin knows how many years of inconsistent teachers, with only one of them being any good in the past four, Professor Tonks thought that her students would _need_ extra classes to be able to catch up to the level they were supposed to be at. After four months under her tuition, Lycus was inclined to agree.

He was looking over a book about some more obscure forms of magical communication. The Protean charm and "vibe" were standing out the most to him. The Protean charm linked multiple objects together, so that when one of those objects changed, the other objects changed along with. You could therefore transfigure a message onto the object, and it would transfigure all of the objects linked to it to display the same message. That's what Professor Tonks was using it for.

The vibe, however, was much more curious. His current book wasn't really able to explain what a "vibe" was or how it worked. It was described as sending a message in the form of a thought to another person who was prepared to accept such a message. You had to have a clear mind to send one, and an even clearer one to receive the vibe. How one did this was not explained, and no range was mentioned, but Lycus wasn't going to put it off just yet.

There were problems with both of them. If he used the Protean charm, there was a chance that the object that linked him and Marvolo would be found. There was also no guarantee that they would see one another's message instantly. With the vibe, Lycus wasn't even sure where to start. He speculated that it required some mastery of legilimency and occlumency, both of which he and Marvolo had, but that would require him and Marvolo to be able to practice with each other. That wasn't happening any time soon.

But then he thought about the pendant. The horcrux. Lycus knew, just like everybody else, that Potter had received 'visions' from the Dark Lord about a graveyard, which is what alerted him of the Dark Lord's plans for the Triwizard Tournament. The thing was that everyone assumed that Voldemort was accidentally sending those visions across. He hadn't been, which means he was able to communicate, in some way, to Potter through his soul.

Lycus had part of Marvolo's soul on him at all times. What if he could use the horcrux as a form of communication? They already knew Marvolo could send messages, or at least images, through his soul. It couldn't be much harder to send a message back.

Potter had the horcrux as a part of his skin, and it was therefore technically part of him. The pendant wasn't part of Lycus, but maybe he could figure out a way around that. There was no way for this kind of communication to be detected. If they could figure out how to make it work, the amount of time it took and range could be discovered from there. If those didn't prove satisfactory to Marvolo, Lycus would continue working on it. Until then, he had to ask his mother for every book on horcruxes and souls she could find. He didn't have those books yet, so he settled for research into the charm and the vibe for the rest of the night.

Lycus had always been an early riser, getting up at five or six in the morning. Typically he would use his time to read, or practice spells, or even just sit and think to strengthen his mind. With his two missions, he actually had things he could do that could be considered more proactive. They had come back to Hogwarts on a Tuesday, meaning that he had to wait a week until he had Divination - which, this year, was with Firenze rather than Trelawney. Only the Ravenclaws had Firenze as a Divination professor for fifth year, much to a couple Gryffindor girl's chagrin. That was very convenient for him.

But he had five days to wait until he had a class with the centaur. It was his first class as well, which meant he'd have to stay a few minutes after class and miss the first few minutes of potions. Snape wouldn't care much for a note, so maybe he shouldn't even bother waiting until he had class with Firenze to talk to him. At the same time, talking to him on the first week back could be perceived as odd.

At least Lycus would have an excuse to suddenly talk to Hermione, citing annoyance at her ignorance to house elves but also sympathizing with her point of view. He didn't have that with Firenze, or anyone else really.

Even if he did have that excuse for Hermione, going to her on the first day back would also see some heads turn. He had to play it on the down low, and take it slow. Marvolo never said that _he_ had to have relationships fully established by the end of summer, and certainly not any involving loyalty, only his parents. He had time, and assuming he was unable to come up with a method of communication that Marvolo liked, he could always make a full report come spring break.

He didn't have an invisibility cloak, and spells only worked so well at concealing someone. The thestral's natural invisibility was the only reason he had even considered becoming an animagus, because their invisibility was only paralleled by that of the invisibility cloak from death. Besides the factor of people being able to see him if they had seen a death, it was a near perfect way to get around unnoticed. As that would take far too long to achieve, bordering on years, he needed another way to visit the Forbidden Forest or Black Lake often without detection.

He had thought about this before, and thought that maybe he could hide in plain sight. If he made a habit out of being outside or away from Hogwarts for extended periods of time people wouldn't question him. More specifically, if he went running in the morning and training in the afternoon after classes, people would eventually just assume he was out running or training during those times. Even if he was really in the Forbidden Forest or Black Lake.

That had its own drawbacks. Purebloods don't do exercise, so he had no worry that one of them would want to join him, but half-bloods and muggle borns might have an interest. If he went with the exercise excuse, there was a chance that he still wouldn't be able to get away from people. Knowing Professor Tonks, she might even make that a thing for her students.

Where he was at currently, the most he could do was think and plan. He had nobody he could trust at school, and a lot of things that could go wrong. Marvolo had given him a mission that he absolutely could not fail. If he had learned anything since he was a child, it was better to do things right the first time than to risk failure. Failure led to people knowing that you tried to do something, and people being in the know was a bad thing.

So he would bide his time and plan. Marvolo took twelve years to make a plan, and Lycus had yet to find a fault in it. The only faults possible were the ones that he and his parents would make.

With those dreadful thoughts out of the way, Lycus felt much more comfortable with his stress. Doing nothing and having nobody learn of Marvolo's plans was a far right better than attempting something and someone learning of them.

So Lycus allowed the rest of the day to pass by normally. He had ancient runes as the last class, which was always anice class for him. The amount of possibilities when it came to ancient runes never ceased to amaze him. Durability, protection, imprisonment, memory aid, magic control, speed... he could go on and on. It was only as difficult as you made it. A complex set of runes could be diminished to a set of only four or five runes if you knew how. It was a shame that the Hogwarts class on ancient runes would never go beyond the most simple forms of ancient runes.

As a bit of a review after coming back from a three week break, and to make sure they hadn't left the basics behind, they went over the first ten runes you learn. The ones that represent the numbers.

From the start of the class, Lycus had an epiphany that turned his brain upside down. The creature used to represent the number zero was the demiguise, used for this because of the demiguise's ability to go invisible. Demiguise hair was also used to make invisibility cloaks, though they only lasted for so long before degrading. Zero represented the absence of quantity, and invisibility cloaks made it seem as though there was an absence by bending the light around the object in question so it didn't reflect. Moody was able to see through this, because there was still something happening to the object. But what if you were able to make "nothing" happen to something?

They were already on number eight, quickly going through the numbers since they had Hermione in class, who was probably the best at remembering things than anyone else. Lycus had a suspicion that she would be a natural at occlumency if she tried.

When they got to the end of that review, Lycus's hand shot up, not willing to let this question go. Professor Babbling was confused by his abrupt hand, as he didn't typically have questions in her class, and called on him to speak.

"Would it be possible to use the demiguise rune to make something disappear?"

Professor Babbling, along with the rest of the class, went silent. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. In all her time teaching, this question had never come up. It was also phrased in a way that made her just a bit confused, "Do you mean make something invisible?"

Lycus shook his head, "I mean disappear. Invisible doesn't mean you're no longer there, only that you can't be seen. The demiguise rune represents zero, which is the absence of anything. I want to know if that can be translated into something other than a number, such as the absence of, say, a cup."

The class was silent again, and more than one head was trying to answer his question. Nobody found that they could refute the idea, but neither could they find a way to make it work.

It took a few minutes for Professor Babbling to come up with an answer, and it was exactly the same answer that everyone else had determined, "I don't know."

This didn't deter Lycus in the slightest, "If you don't know, then it's a possibility?"

"I suppose... yes." was all she could say. He was satisfied enough with that to let the subject drop and let Professor Babbling get the class back on track. His question, and Professor Babbling's answer, left a few heads distracted for the rest of the class, and one of them was _not_ content to drop that subject.

There were a few hours left until dinner, and Lycus was planning to head back to Ravenclaw tower to write a letter to his mother about those books on horcruxes and souls, and now ancient runes as well, even the ones he had already read. If there was a chance to make himself invisible or "disappear" with runes, then there must be a chance for him to make some sort of communication device with runes as well. Oh boy was he as giddy as he had ever been.

But his walk to the Ravenclaw commons was interrupted by none other than Hermione Granger, who apparently was just as curious about the use of the demiguise rune as he was, "Where did that question come from?" Or perhaps she was just curious about why he was interested.

Lycus would admit that he asked that question in a bit of haste, and maybe could have saved it until after class. At the same time, if played right, this could end up being his ticket into Hermione's good graces, and an eventual ally in aiding the house elves. He made a note in his mind to write a letter to Marvolo as soon as he could regarding this.

For now, he would play the typical teen, "I'm a growing man with needs, Hermione. One of those needs is the need to find a way around teachers after curfew," he followed that up with a wink, causing Hermione to roll her eyes. She clearly didn't believe him, not completely, but she also didn't think it was anything nefarious. Technically, he had no nefarious schemes whatsoever. All he wanted to do was help the dejected magical creatures of the world.

"Right. And ehwaz means defense."

Lycus grinned and played along, "And eihwaz means partnership. Glad we could agree on something."

They walked for a few minutes in silence. Whether Hermione knew he was going to Ravenclaw tower or not, he didn't know, but before they got to the branch in path that would determine this, she spoke up again, "I could help, you know."

He raised an eyebrow, at least three questions in his head, though he only asked one, "Why?"

"Why not? It is a fascinating concept. I know you'll try to use the demiguise rune in one way or another anyways, and I'd like to be there if you figure it out." She stopped as they reached the turn in which their paths separated, showing that she knew where he planned to go. He stopped along with her.

She turned to him with an inquisitive eye, though it also held good-natured humour, "Besides, I'm the brightest witch the wizarding world has seen in a long time. With my help, you're bound to succeed." She turned and walked away, her hair flipping naturally with it, her smirk the last thing Lycus saw before she blended in with the crowd.

With a roll of his own eyes, one she didn't get to see, he made his way back to Ravenclaw tower. He knew he had to wait until Marvolo gave him the green light to start including other students in their plans, but Hermione was making it so easy. It's not like she was wrong about being the brightest witch, either. When she put her mind to something, she would no doubt make great intellectual help. Especially if she were willing to sit down and listen instead of assuming things as she had a habit of doing.

With the invisibility thing, however, he didn't need to get Marvolo's permission. That wasn't part of the plan, it was something Lycus felt he needed in order to accomplish a mission that was. He could enlist Hermione's help in creating a way to "disappear" without letting her know anything, and she already expressed that she was willing to help for the simple learning experience.

In the meantime, he still needed to send a letter to his parents. Once in Ravenclaw tower, he brought out a parchment and quill, and began to write, requesting books on "pendants," ancient runes, and things related to making a "pendant," with some general stuff crammed in between.

He didn't really think that the school checked the mail, but he liked to play it safe when it came to delicate situations like this.

Lycus resolved to send the letter on his way back from dinner, and settled down for some nice quiet reading time. Well, researching time. He didn't have the books or materials he needed for the comprehensive research he would end up doing, but he didn't have to be idle.

Not that he had much that he could do throughout the week other than classes and research, but he did decide to make a point of going outside more often than he used to. Nobody had questioned him yet, and didn't seem like they were going to either. He found himself enjoying the fresh air and the grass, but not so much the bugs. Of all the charms he didn't know, bug repellant had to be one of them.

Monday morning at nine o'clock saw him in the class of the blond centaur. Divination was a class Lycus had no care for, as he didn't have any ability to see the future. It was also well beyond him to understand why Dumbledore felt a need to have it as an elective, seeing as it would benefit one student every two generations in honing their third-eye, and was a waste to anyone else who took it. The only reason Lycus took it in the first place was out of curiosity. Ironically, him taking divination gave him a gateway to the centaurs, as if fate decreed it so.

But he knew he wouldn't be able to talk to Firenze during class, or after. Maybe he'd try to come in early next week to visit before class began. He certainly had no idea where Firenze was going to be at any other time of the day.

Towards the end of that class, Firenze said something that made Lycus think that maybe he wouldn't need to talk to Firenze at all, "Centaurs look at the stars every night to glimpse part of their future. We are no demiguise when it comes to foretelling the actions of others, but you will find yourself surprised by us more than you will be able to surprise us."

Lycus could almost swear on his magic that Firenze focused on him more than the other students when saying that, but he wasn't dumb enough to do that. He took arithmancy, too, and he was as certain as a fifth year could be that the numbers didn't add up to chance for that statement. It was the demiguise part that really caught Lycus's attention. That was just such a random creature to mention, even if it did have prophetic abilities.

Divination passed into potions, which became lunch, and Lycus thought briefly that he should go talk to Hermione. With a somewhat confirmation of being able to speak to the centaurs, he really needed to start applying his research into a project. Merlin forbid he starts the process of making an "Evanescent Cloak" without telling her, because if she found out, she may be partial to set the twins on him. And he wasn't talking about the Patil twins.

But he didn't talk to her during lunch that day. He waited until after another ancient runes class to approach her, which gave them more time to speak than lunch would have.

He knew she noticed him walking next to her out of the class. How could she not? But she was being mock conceited, apparently still playing the "brightest witch of the ages" character who had no time for him.

He could play games too. And he did, by walking past her, mumbling to himself, "The cloak should come in today. I can start adding the template to it after dinner."

Lycus resisted the itch to smile when he saw her pause in step in his peripheral, mouth somewhat agape and no longer pretending to ignore him. She rushed up to get back in pace next to him, looking both annoyed and excited.

"You're making an invisibility cloak, aren't you?"

He hummed in thought for a moment, drawing out her suspension. "Nope. I'm not making any kind of cloak yet. Whatever made you think that?"

She took a deep breath, drawing up her shoulders slightly as she did, before letting it out as a huff. "Because I heard you say so."

He feigned innocence, "Who? Me? I would never. I'm pretty sure those are against the rules."

She looked just about ready to whack him arm with one of her books, so he quit the act. "Oh, you must be talking about my future plans to make an Evanescent Cloak. Yes. I did say that."

She hit him with a book anyway. "So you figured out how to make one all on your own? It's been a week!"

Lycus shook his head, "No. I have a few ideas, but I wanted to run them by you before trying anything. You'll probably be able to see any flaws I can't. I do have some test cloaks arriving at dinner, though."

The look in her eyes was one he had rarely seen in the most voracious of Ravenclaws. "When can I look at them? I have some too, if you don't mind. I couldn't help it. I know I'm missing something though, because I can never finish the templates. Maybe tomorrow after arithmancy we can talk? I need to help Ron finish his transfiguration essay today. He barely has one page and it's due first thing in the morning."

Lycus fought to hide his chuckle at the fabled "Hermione Chatter," quick to jump in during her breath so she didn't continue, "Yes, that should be fine. We can compare templates and see if we can't combine some of them. We can also talk about why you can't seem to complete any templates tomorrow if you want."

They were approaching the branch in paths again, so Hermione made her reply short. "Great. I'd like that. Library?"

He nodded to her and they parted ways. Figures that she would try to make her own runic templates. She was as much of an overachiever as any Ravenclaw was, if not more so. He didn't see Padma or Anthony trying to make templates for something like this, even though they had seen him doing so. Not everyone had the same enjoyment in ancient runes as he did, he supposed.

The package with the cloaks did indeed arrive during dinner, and Lycus was unable to miss the excitement generated from a certain Gryffindor at this. He opened the package in his bed later that night to make sure they were what he had ordered. You can never be too cautious.

Runes had to be engraved into something for them to work. They needed to be part of the construct. You could write runes on a piece of paper for homework, but you couldn't power them to receive a desired effect. Cloaks were made of cloth, and therefore you can't engrave anything into them. These cloaks were specially made to have a lining of silver along the inside edges of the cloak for runic carvings, and to have silver twine interwoven with the fabric to make sure there was no way magic could decide the silver wasn't a genuine part of the cloak. He had ten of them made, and was hoping to get the template right before he got to the eighth. Then both he and Marvolo would have an "Evanescent Cloak." Though Hermione would probably want one too.

The next day, Lycus and Hermione had been bouncing their ideas for what they wanted the runic template to do back and forth on the way to the library from arithmancy, with Lycus doing it purely to amuse Hermione. By the time they got to their destination, it was clear to Lycus why she was never able to complete a template.

"You're trying to use the demiguise rune as the focal point. Of course that's not working. The only template that will allow that to happen is one where you put something inside a box and it disappears. And I don't just mean visually."

Hermione put her books on the table with a retort ready before what he was implying sunk in. That box he described was a box of death. So she now saw why she couldn't make a full template, but that left her with not knowing how to make a template for this at all.

Lycus could easily see how she was feeling much more easily than he could tell what Marvolo was thinking. He took out and slid a couple of his templates across the table to her, all the while explaining, "I tried that out at first too. Make whatever is under the cloak disappear, simple as that. But you don't actually want to disappear, so that's not a good idea. I then tried to think of a way to make the area around you disappear, thus tricking the eye into believing that nothing existed in the center of it either. That also didn't work, as you can see." He pointed to one of the templates she was looking at.

She appraised the template before coming up with her own explanation, "Because it would be too unstable. Making the area around you disappear might work for a short amount of time, but the structure of the space would begin to crumble in on you. Not to mention that moving around too quickly would see you moving into emptiness, and who knows what repercussions that might have."

He nodded in affirmation. That was the same line of thought he had after making the template. It was good to know that he made the right choice in trusting she would be intellectually useful, though it was only useful if she just affirmed what he already knew.

"Rather than beating around the bush going over all of the failed templates, let's just get right into the two that I think are the most possible." He took out two more pages and handed them over.

What she saw had her perplexed, "I don't even recognize half of these runes. And there are so few of them. How could these possibly work for something so complex?"

Lycus had anticipated this reaction, which was shown through his grin. He passed her another runic template that was more on the level of a fifth year student. "One of those is a more concise version of this one. The reason you don't recognize half of those runes is because they aren't taught at Hogwarts. We're given the basics of ancient runes here, but there's a whole other world out there that's so much more intricate and developed. Part of that world is knowing how to turn Shakespeare into Jane Austen."

She had a short lived smile at the literary references before looking from one template to another, comparing them. One had a good forty or so runes on it, which she could read perfectly, and the other had only sixteen. She could only read three of those runes. Yet they were supposedly the same thing.

"Where did you learn these other runes?"

He pulled out a couple of books instead of templates this time. If there was one thing he could accurately predict, it was Hermione Granger wanting to have these books. That didn't take having a third-eye.

"From these. One of them, _Rune Master_ , is an advanced text by a genuine Rune Master, Arbjorn Brooks, detailing every rune imaginable, their meaning, most common uses, and even a little bit on how to create runes yourself. That book is a work of rune magic itself." He gave her a meaningful look, "You can borrow it if you like, but I am going to need it back."

She nodded her head vigourously, and almost reverently put it into her own bag.

"The other one is written by Coraline Dalish, a friend of Brooks if I remember correctly, though not a Rune Master herself. It's about runic templates and how to best combine runes together for maximum efficiency. She emphasizes that more is not better, and that with runes, you should always try to find the simplest and most concise variant of what you're trying to achieve. If you don't, according to her, you not only have a long arduous task of carving who knows how many runes, but it also leaves room for more mistakes. She alludes to the idea that runes have a bit of a mind of their own, and some don't like to work with one another, much less with hundreds of each other. So keeping the number down is important."

Hermione slowly nodded her head, able to comprehend what was being said. She had some questions about what he meant by "a mind of their own" but knew they'd be answered when reading the book.

She was clearly interested in both books, but Lycus still had something to say about the second, "That one also has a section on rune usage, and impresses the importance on being experimental and creative when using them. That section is what helped give me the idea for the other template that you can't read, which I made without having to make a more complex version first."

She looked up at him in a silent plea to let her borrow this one too, which was answered with a little hand movement that meant she could. Lycus didn't think she'd be quite this impassioned about runes. She never showed much love for it during class, but maybe that was because the conventional teachings of it were boring to someone of her intelligence. He had certainly found it so, only finding joy in the class by seeing Professor Babbling and his peers getting excited over it. His personal appreciation for the subject was what led him to seeking out outside sources of study for it, and going above and beyond even the N.E.W.T level teachings.

Conveniently, his personal in depth study was what allowed him to bring the Dark Lord back to life and in his original body. That stupid runic circle took him a month to finalize as a template, and two weeks to carve out.

Hermione set the complex template aside for reference while looking at the two simpler ones. The one that she didn't have a reference to had four more runes than the other, making it twenty.

Knowing that she wasn't just there to look at templates and admire ancient runes, she gave her opinion of the two she was assessing, "I know this one is supposed to make it so everything you do disappears without actually making you or the space around you disappear. I can see a lot of repetitive demiguise runes one the original. I guess you had to specify each and every action that needed to be concealed?" She received a nod at this inference. "So, both of these are essentially saying that the sound you make when walking disappears, your scent disappears when it exits the cloak, and other things along those lines. A whole lot of it is covering the visual aspect of disappearing. Is this because you can't just make the space you're in disappear, and have to come up with a convoluted way to prevent people from seeing you?"

Lycus sighed and admitted defeat at that aspect of the template, "It's just not possible to use the demiguise rune to make something no longer appear there visually if it is there. That defeats the purpose of the number zero."

"How did you make this template then?"

He puffed up just a little bit at his accomplishment, "I made it so that light bends around you instead of reflecting off of you, like an invisibility cloak would."

To say that Hermione was gobsmacked was putting it lightly. "That's not possible! People would have been making invisibility cloaks like that for ages if it were." Even as she said that she was looking at the reference template, and found exactly the spot that dictated light bend around you. It was by far one of the most annoyingly complex pieces of rune work she had seen to date. She shuddered to think of applying that part of the template to anything.

But she had a thought while looking at it that would dampen his pride for not thinking of it himself, "Why didn't you just have the demiguise rune disappear the light around you so it never hit you? That would make you more invisible than the average invisibility cloak, and light is so infinitesimal that it wouldn't break space."

Unlike her expectations, he didn't lose any of his pride. "I thought about that after drawing up the final version of the template. It would have been simple to redraw it with that in mind, but instead it gave me another idea. That idea became the other template you have."

She looked at him expectantly, and he didn't disappoint, "Dalish's book talks about being creative. To 'look at things from different perspectives' to find the best fitting one. I kept thinking, as are you, that I needed to make myself unseen by others. That was only one perspective - in a literal sense. So I changed up my thought process from how can I be unseen to how can I make others not see me. It was less of a question on what can I do to myself as it was what can I do to others. Follow me?"

He wanted to see if she could figure it out on her own. The only person in Ravenclaw who actively thought outside the box was Luna. Everyone else normally had to be given a method before they would use that method, never coming up with one themselves. Hermione wasn't in Ravenclaw, but she was still very much by the book. If he was going to consider continuing their friendship beyond what it was right then, which he already was doing, he needed to be sure that she could keep up with him.

Maybe she was less by the book than he thought, though, as it didn't take her very long to catch on to what he was saying. "Instead of trying to make yourself invisible, you came up with a way to make others not see you're there. You made something that would warp their perspective."

He smiled at her blithely, glad that she was quick in understanding him, "Indeed. So instead of having it disappear the sounds I make..." Lycus began, waiting for her to fill it in.

"They simply don't hear those sounds." She looked down at the template she couldn't read without a reference in wonder and a little bit of apprehension. "But how? How could it be so simple?"

"We often overthink things until they make sense. It's a bad habit that we need to break. The simplest answer is more often than not the correct one." It didn't pass over either of them that the answer to "how it could be so simple" was simply "because the simple answer is often the right one." It was such a simple answer that Hermione didn't want to believe it, but of course she did. She was a muggle born. She knew Occam's Razor before Lycus did.

With such a simple answer, she just had to ask, "Why are there twenty runes if that's all you need? I could probably make one with only six."

"I could have simplified it into three runes that would mean others know nothing of me,' but just because you can't be perceived doesn't mean the things you interact with can't be. Sixteen of those runes are along the lines of 'things around me within this radius are not perceived by others' and 'obstructions coming towards me automatically move out of the radius without realizing it.' Which basically means that if I open a door while wearing the cloak, nobody will notice, and if someone is coming towards me, they will automatically go around me, and nobody will notice that either. It also means that the cloak can be worn normally, and the effects will work just as well as if you were under it. Among a couple of other things."

Hermione was already flabbergasted at the power of runes she was just now learning about. She was almost uncertain about asking for anymore information in case she couldn't handle it, and that was something Hermione Granger never felt. "What are those other things, exactly?"

Lycus took it upon himself to start clearing off the table of the soon to be discarded templates so the table wasn't so messy as he answered her, "One of them is just my way of making sure the cloak is never lost, as there would be no way to find it, by requiring it to be worn to work. The other is making sure that this works against magical methods of detection, like 'reveal life' spells, or Moody's eye."

"You mean to tell me that not even Moody could see through it?"

His sly grin was all the answer she needed, but he gave her a verbal one anyways, "Assuming it works the way it's supposed to, yes."

This was all a bit too much for the Gryffindor, though not because she _was_ a Gryffindor, and she lowered her head into her hand.

Lycus allowed her a few moments before springing the best order of words on her that she could ever hope for, "When do you want to start testing it out?"

She would get the chance to see this thing in action. She would take part in the creation of it! If there was ever something that she had wanted to do, it was to do something that could change the world. This was something that could do that.

Any thoughts she may have had that questioned Lycus's motives were thrown out the window almost as soon as the conversation started. Now, she had no room in her mind for anything but her newfound passion for ancient runes. He was right when he thought that he could control her.

* * *

A/N Now that it's not considered a spoiler: Umbridge isn't the DADA professor because Voldemort was killed and his horcruxes destroyed. The Ministry in this story wasn't quite so incompetent as to blatantly ignore Harry, so once Voldemort was killed, they sent a qualified auror to fill in the DADA position until Dumbledore could find a permanent professor, rather than someone like Umbridge to control Hogwarts. There is a bit of backstory going on that isn't part of this story, and I did think that maybe I should start the story earlier in the timeline so these things were explained, but ultimately decided that I wanted this story to be about Marvolo's comeback only. I'm trying to fill in the blanks through exposition and dialogue, but I can only do so when it's not out of place. Therefore, there may be a lot of things that don't get explained unless I do so through authour notes. At that point, I might as well go and make a prequel to this, right?

Joshua the Arcanis: Empress will steal the hearts of many. I'm the one who wrote her, and she's already stolen mine. This chapter doesn't make it too obvious, but goblins aren't the only people who will be promised things. And as the story title suggests, it will span to more than Britain.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N I don't have anything to say, finally, I just think the chapter would be too detached if I didn't force myself in here.

Enjoy.

* * *

Hermione was more ecstatic than Lycus at her inability to detect him while he was wearing the officially coined Evanescent Cloak. She was so ecstatic that she didn't remember opening the door the Room of Requirements, much less leaving it open. She went to close it, and found herself outside the room, with the door no longer existing.

She sighed exasperatedly and put her hands on her hips, "Lycus, I know that's you. Just because I don't perceive you doesn't mean that I don't recognize when you've done something after you've left the range of obscurity."

The door didn't appear, but she did yelp from the fright of a hand appearing on her shoulder behind her. She glared at the laughing Ravenclaw, hoping that he would die on his laughter.

"Ha, ha. Very funny." She said dryly. Her ire didn't hold up for long, replaced by enthusiasm once again.

It had been a week and a half since they met in the library for the first time, and they had met up much more frequently than Lycus thought they would. Apparently, Hermione had found a new calling in the form of ancient runes. Even if they didn't work on the cloak, she had so many questions about what you could do with runes, and he was the only person she could go to to talk about them on the level she wanted.

The cloak had, of course, needed a few changes. Once Hermione had read through the two books Lycus gave her, she had quickly deduced that the template would be better if they gave it a set range of obscurity, and she made sure it knew when to distinguish against living things and nonliving things. Now, ghosts would be able to pass through Lycus, but they would have no idea they did so. Having a set range of obscurity also meant that he would know exactly how much leniency he had in interacting with his environment. Lycus himself had added a couple of runes that would make it sustainable underwater, though he didn't tell Hermione about those. That had the chance of her asking questions. Questions that he couldn't answer truthfully, and she was beginning to become pretty good at knowing when he was lying or omitting things.

Lycus wasn't sure if Hermione was going to want one, and he had kind of handed her the materials needed to make one if he didn't do it for her. He needed to get a handle on that. This was only cloak trial five, so he still had five cloaks left to make into Evanescent Cloaks.

Her excitement was infectious, but he didn't let it be apparent on himself. Now that he had the means to get around undetected, he could go into the Forbidden Forest and Black Lake. Or just the Forbidden Forest. The Black Lake may take a bit more time since it also had the challenge of breathing underwater. Gillyweed was both rare and a pain, and he would need far more than one hour to talk to the selkies.

Hermione's voice brought him out of his internal musings, "What's it like to wear it? Is it any different than a normal cloak?"

She was practically bouncing on her feet to know, making Lycus laugh softly. He knew he would regret this, but... "Why don't you find out?" He handed her the cloak anyway.

Her eyes widened at the offer and she was quick to put on the cloak. His eyes didn't move from the spot he was looking at, which had been Hermione's face, but he now found that he was looking down the seventh floor corridor. It made him a bit uncomfortable to think that she was around somewhere, he just had no way of knowing where.

As an experiment, he walked towards where Hermione had once been, but stopped abruptly as he realized he was standing eight meters from where he was before even though he had only walked three. Disturbing? Yes. Fucking awesome? Definitely.

"Alright, Hermione. Come on out. Let's not take it upon ourselves to abuse this power." He said to the empty space behind him, even though he was pretty sure it wasn't empty. Pretty sure. Hermione very well may have left, which is why he almost didn't give it to her.

He was beginning to notice a distinct issue with the cloak's design now that he wasn't the one wearing it. Even if you couldn't perceive that there was someone there, simply knowing that someone was around let you notice the unmistakable signs of them being there. Hermione knew he had left the door open by it being perceivable once he went far enough for it to be out of his range. He had done that on purpose to mess with her, but thinking back, that's a flaw in the system. Now that he was the one unable to perceive Hermione, he was still finding that he noticed he was being messed with. The lapse in memory of walking five meters was because he was walking through the range of obscurity. Noticing this lapse was a problem.

He wouldn't be mentioning this to Hermione. He'd edit the template again to ensure that people didn't remember these lapses in memory and make a new cloak. In a crowd, nobody would notice, but if he didn't have to have that risk, he wouldn't.

Hermione appeared abruptly in front of him in her version of a jump scare. Needless to say, it didn't work.

"Ha, ha. Very funny." He said, partly to mock her for saying it earlier.

She sighed with a quiet "Damn" and handed the cloak back to him. "It's no fun when the person you're trying to scare doesn't react."

"Maybe you should pick better targets." He stuck his tongue out at her like a true adult.

"Who? The twins? If I did that, they'd want to know how, and somehow I don't think you want this cloak to become common knowledge."

Her logical and very on the nose reply had Lycus somewhat cowed. "No, I don't. But you don't have to reveal all of your secrets to your friends. In fact, not telling them how you did it would just be a bigger prank on them. They'd never know when you're going to play one, or how to avoid it." And he brought himself right back up. He was proud of this accomplishment and no amount of comeback would stop him from feeling so.

Hermione gave up while she was somewhat ahead. "Alright, fine."

In an unsaid agreement, the two began heading towards the Great Hall for the upcoming dinner. Lycus wanted to test out the cloak on the rest of the students, but decided that it would be better not to do that just yet. He would wait until he had the finalized version to try out, and when he was satisfied with it, he would take a trip to the Forbidden Forest.

He wasn't worried about there being anything that could get around the cloak. It was the first of its kind, and only he and Hermione knew about it. Professor Babbling was the only one he could imagine finding a way to subdue the cloak's power, other than Hermione, but Professor Babbling didn't even know it existed. That's how it was going to be, too. If he even suspected that Hermione was going to let people know about the cloak, he would obliviate her. And then hope she wouldn't notice and find a way to undo the obliviation, of which he was uncertain she couldn't do.

He was glad that he walked with Hermione to the Great Hall because it meant that she had the chance to tell him of a possible way to detect someone under the cloak.

"Harry has this map that shows the name of everyone in the castle in the exact spot they reside. I'm not sure how it was accomplished, and I also don't know if the Evanescent Cloak will be able to make you undetectable to that."

If there were ever information to give someone that verified the amount of trust you have in them, that was it. He didn't know if it was blindly placed trust, or if she just wasn't thinking when she said that, but that map sounded like the only thing that would let him be detected while under the cloak.

Lycus could think of only one way, currently, that something like that could be made. The Homonculous Charm would make everyone within a mapped area appear on that map. He'd have to do some tests with that map to make sure it counted as a magical detection device like Moody's eye and wouldn't be able to see through the cloak. If it did see through, he had some more thinking to do.

As a Ravenclaw, Hermione was expecting Lycus to want to do tests with the map, and she would willingly oblige, as long as Harry gave her the map to use. Even Gryffindor's could have a manipulative streak, and this was her way of getting Lycus interested in the map so they could make one themselves, possibly better. Hermione loved her friends, but they just didn't have the same intellectual prowess that she did. She had wanted to play with the Marauder's Map ever since she learned of it, but knew her friends would be interested in what she was doing, and that interest would ultimately be the end of her actually being able to learn anything about the map. The sheer amount of questions they would ask would annoy her until she couldn't focus.

She was right about Lycus's intrigue, "Curious. And I presume you mention this because you want me to look at it, and maybe I'll be able to replicate the same thing?"

But he was one step ahead of her. "Er, I mean... yes. But I also mention it because it is something that could render the cloak useless against people who can tell where you are, even within the obscurity range."

He laughed genially, not bothered in the slightest by her attempted manipulations. She was just a hair's breadth away from being a Ravenclaw. If only she would learn to control her haste. She could be near his level no problem, though she would never quite get there, in the manipulative sense. He was raised to be like this, after all. It was as much a part of him as breathing.

"I think it'd be a good idea to look over this map. I already know how it was done, unless the creator used something other than charms. But it might surprise me. It has the entirety of Hogwarts mapped, you say?"

Hermione nodded her head, happy that he held no grudge against her. She imagined that he had used manipulations on her to get her to help, so it would be hypocritical of him to be mad. She would have helped anyways. She did offer it from the beginning. But even she would admit that she had jumped into an unknown project with unknown motives far more quickly than she usually would. She would blame the promise of knowledge on that. And maybe accuse him of having a Charm Charm on at all times.

For once, she was the one who knew what she was talking about between them, and it showed in her confident tone, "Every nook and cranny is mapped. Including the secret passageways that even Filch doesn't know about."

Whoever made this map had a lot of time on their hands, assuming they only used a Homonculous Charm on it. That charm had to be placed on an already existing map, it didn't create maps for you. The creator had to go through Hogwarts and map it themselves if that was the case. With this thought in mind, Lycus could see two flaws in the maps creation.

"If it was made the way I think it was, then it probably doesn't have the Room of Requirements on it, does it?" The Homonculous Charm would only work on something that was part of the environmental structure. Since the Room of Requirement had no set structure itself, the charm wouldn't be able to work on it, even if the creator knew the room was there. If the answer was no, then he could be mostly certain that it was the Homonculous Charm.

She took a second to realize that she hadn't thought of that herself, cursing in her mind for being consistently taught things when she was supposed to be the teacher, "No, it doesn't. It also doesn't have the, uh..."

Internally, Lycus smirked. She had finally caught herself from saying something that could be considered "giving it away." Maybe she was learning from him. This made her both a better asset, and a bigger risk. He'd have to ensure her trust soon enough, otherwise he'd have to tone down their new friendship. He didn't know if Marvolo would be okay with her being in the "in" yet.

Innocently, he asked, "It also doesn't have what?"

She bit her lip, weighing the options of tell or don't tell. In the end, it was the former that she chose, "The Chamber of Secrets. The map doesn't have the Chamber of Secrets on it."

She half expected him to be shocked that the chamber was real, but couldn't tell if he was. She also half expected him to already know it existed. He always seemed to just kind of know those things.

He hadn't known, he was just very good at controlling his expressions. He had also suspected the existence of the chamber, so the confirmation was simply that. But now that he knew the chamber was real, and that a map with a Homonculous Charm didn't include it, he had many more questions pop up in his head.

"Do you know if the creator of the map knew that the chamber existed?" But he was capable of holding his tongue, and only asked he one question. He knew first hand how irritating being asked multiple questions at once could be.

"I don't think they did. Does that matter?" Her own question was more to see if she couldn't glean information on just how much Lycus knew about the map without even seeing it. She wanted to know how deductive the Ravenclaw was. Maybe then she could make her own deductions as to how much she had inadvertently told him while working on the Evanescent Cloak's runic template.

"This was the final block I needed to make sure it wasn't anything more than what I already knew it was. The map can only show places that have been added to it, which means that no extra charm or rune work was done on it past the initial creation. Granted, casting the charm needed to make the map, and then mapping out the entirety of Hogwarts, is a feat in and of itself that shouldn't be looked down on. But I won't say that I couldn't do better."

Hermione didn't even try to hide her sigh. Of course he could do better. Remus may have been a very smart student with a lot of power and study, but he wouldn't be able to stand against Lycus's vault of knowledge. That was the boon of being born and raised pureblood, she resolved. The two books he gave her on ancient runes had been from his family library. If he had those, who knows what else was there? She wouldn't be surprised if he knew how to become an animagus in less time than the Marauders did.

They were approaching the Great Hall just a few minutes before most students came down to eat. Hermione was content to leave with her thoughts, but Lycus had something to say before they left for their house tables.

"You could do better, too, you know. I have no doubt that you can recreate the map, but what's the point in just recreating something when you can improve upon the original design? You just need to learn to let your brain go sometimes."

They stopped briefly at the entrance to the Great Hall. Lycus nodded his head at her with an intense look in his eyes that made her really consider his words. She nodded back at him and made her way to Gryffindor table to wait for her friends, lips pursed in thought.

Lycus thought about his own words and how he sounded a bit like a certain blonde fourth year Ravenclaw. He wondered if she would be able to give him some ideas on how to use runes for various things. Her less-than-conventional perspective on the world could be just the thing that he needed to invent something that called for more than runes.

She was also the daughter of a journalist, and may have some thoughts to add when it came to developing a new way to communicate. Add in that Hermione was a muggle born, both of the girls were in ancient runes themselves, and he was certain that invention could become a simple pass time between the three of them.

It had only been two and a half weeks since he came back from winter break. He had a little over two months before spring break came along, and since he needed to consult with Marvolo about student allies before gaining any, he was hoping the days would go by fast. Unless he invented a way to communicate with him before then, but since the horcrux was his most likely bet, that didn't seem like it'd be happening anytime soon.

Lycus followed the belief of Professor Babbling that idle hands were for the foolish. Maybe he couldn't proceed with his second mission, but he could perfect a cloak that would allow him to proceed with the first one. The first one was more important anyways.

* * *

It had become enough of a habit that Lycus didn't even realize that he and Hermione were walking to the Room of Requirement until they got there. They had been meeting there after the fourth class on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays to work on the Evanescent Cloak and runs tests with it. When dinner was closing in, they'd go to the Great Hall.

Lycus had wondered why Potter and Weasley were okay with this, and he asked her about it one of the times they went to the room after ancient runes. According to her, they saw it as being given freedom to put off homework since she wasn't around to force them to do it, and had no qualms with the arrangement whatsoever. She wasn't upset by this notion, as she was filling her time with something she enjoyed doing rather than having to deal with the two. Win win for the three best friends, apparently.

The only thing that made Lycus apprehensive about having Hermione around was that he had reconfigured the template for the cloak again, and would have to make one with this hopefully finalized version when in Ravenclaw tower rather than the workshop the room had provided.

That grievance was quick to become a small nuisance as she pulled out a map, distracting him from those thoughts. Lycus was pretty sure he knew what the map was. And he was pretty sure he'd have to reconfigure the template again after testing the cloak against the map.

She held it out for him to take, "This is the Marauder's Map. Tap it with your wand and say I solemnly swear that I am up to no good1."

He took the map from her and complied with her directions, though still asked, "What happens if I don't?"

He watched as ink bloomed on the pages in front of him, displaying the text Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers, are proud to present THE MARAUDER'S MAP, while Hermione described the witty lines that would appear if someone tried to access the map without knowing how.

Figures that it was a previous generation of pranksters that made something like this. If he had learned one thing from the Weasley twins, it was that pranksters were determined and resourceful.

Lycus opened it up, impressed at the amount of work that went into crafting the map. Hermione wasn't kidding when she said "every nook and cranny" of Hogwarts. It was more than he expected.

"Well, I can tell you that the only piece of magic on this map is the Homonculous Charm. It was very craftily used, but it was still only the one charm. It's not an easy one to use, either. Whoever these messrs were, they must have been quite been the dedicated mischief makers." He kept it open and gave her the cloak.

She didn't need to be told what to do and left the room with it on. He wasn't able to see her name on the map until after she was in the corridor, but he was able to see her name. The cloak didn't work on the map. Damn.

She came back in and could tell just from the disappointed look on his face that he could see her name. They exchanged objects.

Hermione took a look around the workshop, "Looks like we'll need to continue meeting here."

Lycus nodded his head solemnly, "Such a shame. I was looking forward to being able to be alone again."

The Gryffindor wasn't fazed, able to tell when he was being sarcastic by now.

Or so she thought, until his next comment, "I'm thinking about bringing Luna in to help." She wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic about that or not.

"Luna? As in, the Luna that believes in things like wrackspurts and crumple horned snorkacks?" Also known as the Luna that was just a little dotty. Or a lot dotty. Hermione wasn't sure that someone like her would be very good with what they were working on. She was a Ravenclaw, sure, but she was just so eccentric and always on cloud nine and had the weirdest ideas...

Before Lycus got to reply, Hermione amended herself, "Actually, I think she'd be great. Even if her ideas are a little impossible or out of the ordinary, they'd still be a great source of creativity. Creativity that I don't think either of us truly have."

Lycus smiled at her amendment and nodded in agreement, "Exactly. We can't be everything, can we?"

She smirked, "Not just the two of us. With Luna, and maybe some others, maybe we could be."

"Some others?"

Hermione shrugged, "I'm not saying I have anyone in mind, I'm just saying that I think it's possible for us to gather a group who could actually cover enough areas to be 'everything'."

Lycus returned her smirk with a playful one, "Following that logic, we just need to gather the whole school. With so many people, what could go wrong?"

She closed her eyes and images began flashing behind her eyelids displaying just how many ways that could go wrong. Merlin forbid.

But Lycus wasn't asking the whole school, just Luna, who agreed to join them in their adventures of invention that night, and joined them the next day. She had a love of runes herself, and had many an idea beforehand that she just couldn't make work with her current repository. Maybe the two fifth years had the knowledge she needed for a telescope that could zoom in on tiny things that were nearby, or a book that could call information from every other book in the world.

In the meantime, her friend and could-be-friend wanted help with a cloak and a map. For "sneaking" and the like, though they put it differently.

Until she read the two books Lycus gave her, all she could do was give suggestions.

Her first one had been simple: link the map to the cloak so that the cloak could specifically target against the map. While simple, neither Hermione nor Lycus thought that it would be worth it if other maps could see through it. It had to work against all maps, then. That would have been nice to know before she had to think of suggestions.

They had already covered the notion of making you disappear entirely, so she couldn't bring that up. But what they hadn't covered was temporarily making the person under the cloak have no identity.

Two blank stares greeted her at the mention of this, "What?"

She sighed and stared right back at them, "This map knows who you are no matter what disguise you use, because you are always you, magically and mentally. But if you made it so you weren't you, the map would be unable to recognize who you are."

"And so the map wouldn't show your name, even if was still able to show you're there?" Hermione asked, to which Luna nodded. Hermione looked over to Lycus, "Do you think that's possible?"

Of the three of them, he had the most knowledge about runes, as well as the most experience. Even so, "I can't say it's impossible, but I also can't think of how to accomplish that. It's worth looking into, and Luna wouldn't have mentioned it if she thought it couldn't be done. And this is without her reading the books."

He wasn't feeling super about not being able to completely hide yourself from the map, but this was better than nothing. Especially since they had spent the entire time talking about how to hide from the map. This idea was the only promising one to come about.

With something to go on for tomorrow, and dinner on its way, the three packed up and began making their way to the Great Hall.

* * *

If Lycus had been there, Marvolo was sure he would be happy to know that he was not idle. He was not limited to a school. Granted, as things were currently going, Lycus was probably having more success in his endeavours than Marvolo was.

Marvolo was trying to come up with a list of magical creatures he could ally with. There were the obvious ones who had the intelligence and existing relations in governments: vampires, werewolves, merpeople, centaurs, and goblins. Then there were the ones that were intelligent, but maybe wouldn't care enough to align with him: sphinxes, griffins, giants, leprechauns, manticores, kelpies, runespoor, and a few others. And then there were those that weren't so intelligent, but could still provide assistance: pixies, fairies, sea serpents, gnomes, erklings, occamies, lethifolds, demiguises, even hippocampuses, and a whole other load of creatures.

It didn't help that there wasn't much information on the creatures beyond their abilities and how dangerous they were, unless they were already working for or with their governments. He really had no way of knowing if manticores would like to have rights unless he walked up to one and asked. And that was called suicide.

He sighed and put down his quill, massaging his right hand with the left to try and relieve the cramping. He didn't understand how Lycus was able to write for hours on end. He was able to do it when he was in school himself, of course, but still. Maybe Lycus had potions or spells that helped him. He'd have to ask the next they saw each other.

Empress stirred slightly, taking notice that he had finally stopped taking notes. She lifted her head and stared down at the list of names and their details, §That's a lot of other creatures. You're not trying to replace me, are you?§ She moved more onto his shoulder so she could rear up properly and look at him condescendingly, swishing the tip of her tail to show her amusement.

He scoffed, looking very offended that she would even imply such a treacherous thing, §Of course not, lovely. I am simply looking for minions fit to serve the future crown of the world. Only the best for you.§ He pet her head and scratched under her chin where he knew she liked it most.

She hissed appreciatively, but was not distracted from the conversation, §Am I to be the ruler of the world after you conquer it? That seems like too much work. If you don't want it, then why not the boy?§ She flicked her tongue out to show that she was only teasing. That she was mostly teasing.

§Lycus? He is but a pawn, lovely. Unfit to rule.§

She gave the snake equivalent of a snort, §Right. And I am only a snake. Unfit to rule.§

Marvolo pouted at her, displeased that she made the number of people who could see through him two. Three, if he counted the goblins. Speaking of, he needed to make a visit to them again soon. If only he had Lycus to have make an appointment again. Having only one person he could entrust with his plans and partake in them directly was a mistake. Especially when that person was gone for ten months out of the year.

Empress was correct, though Marvolo had come to expect that. Lycus was a fair candidate for the future ruler of the world. He knew that while Lycus would be the one to actually do work and give orders if that were the case, he would still be listening to Marvolo. Putting Lycus up there meant only that he wouldn't have to do any of the work himself, just delegate it all. But the idea of not actually being the ruler was against him. No. Once they had taken over the world, Marvolo would be the one they called King. Paperwork be damned. He could still give all of that to Lycus. Or some other servant.

Empress sensed the end of the chat and gave his chin a little nudge before circling back around his neck as much as she could. She still had a few inches left to grow before she could fully circle around it. Not that that would do her much good, but it was an easy way of checking her own growth without having to be told.

Back in the school which kept Lycus for ten months out of the year, the three rune enthused students had begun the sixth trial cloak, which, while capable of hiding your name from the map, was a bit terrifying and also a failure in the useability department. The now dubbed "Cipher Cloak" worked the way it was supposed to - it got rid of your identity to the point of tricking the map into not knowing who you were, and therefore not displaying a name for you. The downside was that it got rid of your identity, and as it turns out, your identity is pretty important to your existence.

Long story short, if Lycus had kept the cloak on for too long, he would have become a body with a soul that had no mind or magic. Mentally and magically dead while his heart still beat. Undetectable and would never be found. So it was decided between the three to disregard that idea completely, and go back to the drawing board.

But without the ability to take away what let the map know who you are, they were left without much to go on. Lycus was persistent in discovering how to get around the map. He didn't even need to be undetected by the map as it didn't work outside of the castle itself, but he couldn't get over the fact that something might be impossible. "Nothing's impossible." was what he told the girls before returning to glower at a book.

And after two more weeks of all three of them researching when they could and thinking, nobody could think of anything new. Lycus, externally sullen and internally bitter, settled on working on that aspect of the Evanescent Cloak himself when he had nothing to do until he figured it out, and working with the girls on their new project.

A map. More specifically, a map that automatically mapped the area you were in to a certain radius, and could detect hidden passageways and magical rooms.

Luna, ever the visionary, had a lot of ideas to add to this particular discussion, "Could we make it able to detect people like the Marauder's Map? And label them as ghosts, poltergeists, animagi, trolls, furgles, and other various creatures?"

The two fifth years nodded at her first sentence, and then promptly stopped at her second. Labeling ghosts was one thing, but doing that for every creature would be less than easy. Having to come up with all of those labels too. Not a pleasant thought.

And of course, despite her better instinct, Hermione had to ask, "What's a furgle?"

"They're cousins of nargles. Instead of being pests that infest mistletoe and steal things, though, they make you lucky." Luna nodded her head as though she were talking to children.

Lycus coughed to hide his almost laugh and made a few notes on his parchment, "I'll write that down so we can look into it in the future. Any other ideas?"

Luna smirked. Oh yeah, she had some ideas. "It should be able to adjust itself to a new area and automatically map out each place it visits, along with remembering each map it makes so it can cross reference any changes that were made to that place. I think it should also be able to zoom and enhance so you can have more detail about a specific area, and be able to zoom out to substitute detail for coverage. There should be different modes for it as well. For instance, one of the modes, let's call it aerial mode, would give you a flat bird's eye view of the area. Another mode, say structure mode, would show you the structure of the environment and its stability. If possible, we could have a magical vision mode, that shows any and all curses or wards set. Things like that." Her "if possible" part was meant to incentivize Lycus to agree with the ideas. The Marauder's Map problem had shown them he was unreasonably tenacious over the notion of things being unobtainable.

Whether or not he caught on to this was unknown to her. Lycus dutifully took note of every suggestion she made, even if thinking of how to bring them to life gave him a slight headache. The thought of combining all of that filled him with dread. Not that those were the only ideas she would have. She'd come up with more, no doubt, and make this map overly complicated to the point of being unusable. That was the beauty of Luna.

Luna decided that that was enough messing with her friends for the day and didn't continue when asked if she had anymore ideas. So Lycus turned to Hermione for her opinion.

"I was thinking less on features, and more on, er, practicality. You know, stuff like a password and thief prevention."

Lycus nodded and added those to the parchment before looking back up at the girls and giving his thoughts on the situation with a grin, "And this is why I wanted both of you to help."

"You say that as if you planned on making a map before you knew about the Marauder's Map - which I showed you, by the way." Hermione huffed, crossing her arms and sticking her nose up in an awfully good impression of Zacharias Smith.

"I never said I meant that in regards to the map." he retorted, imitating her position. She rolled her eyes as had become habit around Lycus and dropped her arms, to which Lycus replied by doing the same.

"We should focus on making a map that can map itself and track people without using the Homonculous Charm before we look into these other things." was Lycus's input on the map creation after concluding that doing all of it at once would be a sure fire way to lose sleep. Or his mind.

Luna seemed a bit put out, but nodded anyways, "We could each work on different aspects and then check over each other's work. More efficient, as you two like to say."

Lycus and Hermione agreed on that point and divided up the work: Lycus would work on the self-mapping template, Hermione would work on the entity detection template, and Luna would work on the thief prevention template.

The following Sunday afternoon saw Lycus donning the Evanescent Cloak to finally head into the Forbidden Forest and see if he couldn't run into some centaurs. Although, they would probably be the ones doing the running. Well, he might end up running, too, in the sense of running away.

Sunday meant that most students were out and about, and therefore dispersed. Less chance to run into them, and less chance to be questioned if they saw him. Not that that was likely, both because of the cloak, and because of his recent outdoor expeditions known as reading in nature that made him somewhat of a regular to the outside.

But that didn't matter so much. There would be no other students in the Forbidden Forest, and Hagrid stayed well away from the centaurs out of respect. That and maybe because they had been expressing their distaste for anything related to the Ministry, including Hogwarts and its professors, in the recent years.

He made it to the edge of the Forbidden Forest with none the wiser. Really, the Forbidden Forest wasn't scary. It was a forest. The only thing scary about it was the untimely death that you may face if you piss off some of its inhabitants.

Lycus stepped into the dense underbrush, wary of any plants that may want to grab him. He wasn't sure if plants counted in the list of stuff the cloak could confound, even if they were alive. Many people tended to view the life of a creature as vastly different from the life of a plant, to the point of not considering plants alive at all. So it was really a bit subjective and he would need to test it out at a later moment in time. Stupid cloak with its stupid need for constant stupid adjustments.

He was no ranger and couldn't track animals for shit. That being said, Firenze heavily implied that the centaurs may just come out and meet him of their own accord. Which would be nice and save him from a lot of trouble.

As it turned out, the centaurs did not appear just because he wanted them to, and he was stuck with having to talk a walk through the Forbidden Forest to find them. All the better for him to avoid possible interactions with students and Hagrid, he supposed.

He spent a decent amount of time walking into the Forbidden Forest, enough to be considered an exercise. It could only have been three or four in the afternoon, and a quick Tempus showed him it was, but the closely knit trees caused a near-solid canopy to block most of the light from above. It was dusky, and he could see many of the particles that were floating in the air. It made it just a tad difficult to see where he was putting his feet. He would have used Lumos to brighten the area up, but the cloak would only prevent that light from being seen for five meters around him, and Lumos would extend quite a bit past that.

There was a rustle from his left. His eyes snapped to where it came from, shoulders tensed and hand on his wand. It was too low to the ground to be a centaur. How many normal creatures existed in this forest again? None? So what could have disturbed the brush near the base of a tree.

A fox. A normal fox. Lycus relaxed and continued on - almost bumping right into a deer, who of course didn't notice him. So that makes at least two non magical creatures that resided in the Forbidden Forest. Good to know.

Now that he was much more alert to his surroundings, he could hear a not-so-faint thumping noise that sounded a lot like horses galloping. He knew that horses didn't live in the Forbidden Forest. Thestrals and unicorns did, but thestrals weren't the kind of creature to gallop, and unicorns weren't the kind of creature to gallop in herds. Which left centaurs.

Lycus briefly wondered if perhaps they were hunting the deer that was now stuck in his range of obscurity, unable to find its way out because of how confused it was. Lycus sighed and stepped away from the deer so that it could move on. The centaurs wouldn't appreciate his help in catching a deer. Quite the opposite. They also wouldn't appreciate him interrupting their hunt. Again, quite the opposite.

The deer continued on its path of escaping certain doom as Lycus contemplated revealing himself. The thumping was indeed approaching. He only had so long until they were upon him. To reveal or not to reveal.

He cast a glamour on himself to become the character known as Arnou and took off his cloak, leaning against one of the surrounding trees to wait for them. Centaurs weren't known to be able to see through wizard magic, though they may surprise him. Regardless, it was Arnou and Dacarus who were advocating for magical creature rights. They were the ones who were going to lead the... what was an appropriate term for what they were doing? Revolution? Yeah. Revolution. They were planning to overthrow the government in order to end oppression, weren't they? Whether or not only one ruling figure will be established afterwards, and that that ruling figure was once known as Voldemort is irrelevant.

So it was Arnou who was leaning against a tree, ready to befriend some irate and aggressive centaurs.

A group of five of the human-horse hybrids, since they were not halfbreeds, came by. Three of them kept going to follow the deer while two stayed behind, arrows trained on the figure leaning against a tree.

Arnou was an adult, and would not be spared if the centaurs decided he wasn't worth talking to. Maybe if he were still Lycus, they would second guess killing him, but not anymore. He needed to make sure not to stress them.

"What are you doing in our forest?" one of the centaurs said, his voice as harsh as the brush beneath his feet. He had a cremello coat, with ivory hair and blue eyes.

The other centaur, a female with what Lycus was pretty sure was a spotted coat of bronze and beige, looked Arnou up and down intently, glaring all the while. He was hoping that perhaps she recognized him from whatever was said within the stars.

He stayed leaning against the tree, posture relaxed and hands visible so they knew he meant no harm, "I only seek to speak with you." He used the work seek rather than want, because centaurs did not enjoy being used by wizards, and that included doing things that wizards wanted.

The centaur who asked the question stomped a hoof on the ground and growled some more. It was odd to think of a horse growling, but these were centaurs who had human vocal chords, or something similar to them.

The female of the two spoke up next with a voice that was simultaneously smooth and imposing, ecru eyes boring into him, "Who are you?"

"My name is Arnou." He replied, cool and collected. Both sets of glaring eyes shone at his name. So they did recognize him. Or his name. One or the other.

The rather large and physically imposing centaur narrowed his icey eyes and put more tension on his bowstring while the smaller but equally imposing feminine centaur released some of the tension on hers.

"You will bring us misery, eagle-wolf. Get out." Naturally, this was said by the centaur who looked more ready to pierce him with an arrow. In spite of this threat, Lycus was wondering why they called him eagle-wolf. Maybe that's what the stars called him. But why?

Arnou didn't get the chance to speak, the spotted centaur beating him to it, "Calm, Solsun. He may bring us freedom instead. Do not ignore the stars just because of your enmity towards humans."

The icey gaze turned towards his companion, being met with ecru eyes that returned the same amount of steel. Lycus sincerely wished that the female centaur didn't end up being another Firenze, because Firenze wasn't doing so great in the centaur department, and that would make her virtually useless in befriending the centaurs.

"You ignore what the humans have done to us, Pikrin."

She turned the human portion of her body towards the centaur that Lycus could safely and correctly assume was named Solsun, bringing her shoulders up just a bit in defiance, "No. I look at what the humans could do for us."

Lycus wisely chose not to take a turn in the conversation, even if his next line would have confirmed her words.

"You begin to sound like Firenze." Solsun spat out the centaur's name in disgust.

Pikrin was not intimidated in the slightest, "Firenze wanted to help the humans. We are looking at a human who could help us." They weren't really looking at him in this moment, but both males understood her point. Her tail swished in unspoken challenge between the two centaurs.

Solsun took a deep breath and blew it out sharply, turning his eyes back to Arnou with antipathy, though continuing to speak to his companion, "You will be the one to tell Magorian of this. I want no part in this fraternization." He said the last word with so much loathing that Arnou could almost feel the hatred coming off of him in physical waves.

The cremello centaur took off in the direction the other centaurs had gone, leaving a relieved Arnou and an irritated centaur behind.

Ecru eyes turned on him, still glaring though not nearly as much as Solsun was. "My friend spoke truth, eagle-wolf. You may bring us misery beyond repair if we accept you."

Arnou took the following pause to mean that he was allowed to speak, and took a gander at a question, "Why have you not killed me yet, then?"

"Because there is an equal chance that you will instead give us the freedom we deserve." Lycus could tell that she was holding something back, but didn't press it.

Instead, he aimed to ease her trepidation, "I do not pursue your continued misery. I aspire only to end your maltreatment." Carefully avoiding anything that could be easily translated as 'I want'. Pikrin may spot this, since pursue and aspire are somewhat odd words to use in this context, but even if she does, she will know that it is because Arnou doesn't want anything from her. That's what he's hoping on.

She regarded him with piercing eyes, searching for any deception within his words. He met her eyes with his own. He had nothing to hide. He spoke only the truth, and she was able to see this.

"I will speak with Magorian. Feel lucky, human. You leave with your life." She turned away and trotted in the opposite direction of the other four centaurs, presumably to speak with Magorian. When she was far enough away that Lycus felt safe, he put the cloak back on and took off the glamours, breathing a heavy sigh of relief.

On that same Sunday afternoon, Dacarus took a trip to Gringotts. This trip was considerably less tense than Arnou's experience with the centaurs and he didn't have any weapons aimed at him at any moment.

This marked the third visit to the goblins, the last one happening just the week prior at Dacarus's request to express a bit more of his plans to Gnarlob, setting the foundation for a trusting relationship.

This meeting was set at the request of Gnarlob, which could be just as good of a sign as it could be bad.

Marvolo took the offered seat, "Good afternoon, Gnarlob. I hope the day is finding you in good fortune." He had taken a look into some pureblood etiquette before the second meeting, and decided to mix it up with what he knew goblins appreciated. So far, Gnarlob had been pleased with his wishings of full pockets and prosperity.

"Well met, Dacarus. Have you ever heard of the sword once owned by Godric Gryffindor?"

Marvolo took a second to enjoy the subtlety of getting right down to business. He had always loved that about goblins. "Yes, I have."

In fact, Godric Gryffindor's sword was the only Founder's Relic he couldn't find. It was as elusive in nature as it was in practice.

"As you well know, goblins consider buying something as renting it. As such, the sword of Godric Gryffindor is rightfully ours, but nobody has seen fit to return it to us. I believe that if you can restore the sword to us, my superiors may be willing to speak with you." Gnarlob looked at him expectantly.

Marvolo blinked. Find and return the sword of Gryffindor? Well, shit.

He cleared his throat quietly, not wanting his uncertainty to show, "I see. Arnou happens to be going to Hogwarts, however I cannot contact him until spring break. I don't know how long it will take, but I assure you we will find it and restore it to its rightful owners." It was all he could do, really. If he refused, Gnarlob may very well never speak to him again, which was detrimental to his plans.

Gnarlob slowly nodded, "I expected as much. Until you retrieve the sword, I am as far as you can go with Gringotts."

"I understand, Gnarlob. Is that all?" Gnarlob nodded his head. Got the business out of the way, and they were done. Marvolo stood and bowed his head in departure, receiving one in return. And with that, he left.

* * *

Joshua the Arcanis: Hey, no worries about a long review - that just means you'll get a long reply. I think some of Marvolo's motive has been displayed in this chapter, but whether he's taking over the world for the hell of it or because he truly does feel it's the only way to right some wrongs is going to be left up to interpretation. I don't know if his thoughts towards muggles and muggle-borns will actually come up in the future, but in case it does, I won't tell you what they are right now. However, to keep with the intelligent characters thing, his reasons, while possibly fueled by emotion, will be logical and not just because muggles and muggle-borns are lesser. In regards to Harry... you know, I hadn't even considered putting Hermione in the story, but she just fit so well with her perspective on house elves and their plans to help magical creatures, so I honestly have no idea if Harry is going to be a part of this story besides being _around_. We'll just have to see. As for Lycus, he was raised from birth to be the perfect servant. Flaws aren't allowed in his resume. They are inevitable, of course, but they aren't supposed to be glaringly obvious. If you ever feel that he doesn't have enough, or that they aren't big enough, let me know and I'll see what shenanigans I can get him into.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N So, I happen to be working on another story with my sister, which is not being posted on this account. I would put a plug to that story here, but that's bad for business, surprisingly. But never fear (if any of you were) for I shall not abandon this story! It's my first investment, and I will see it through.

Enjoy.

* * *

Ironing out a set of templates that were compatible with one another and worked together was not a painless task, which is why Lycus preferred to make one large template most of the time. Three people with different styles and ways of working with runes made that thought go out the window. This map was going to take years, minimum, to perfect one or more templates for what with all of the additions Luna wanted it to have. They had taken to just working on their part, the first three easiest parts, of the map during their meetings instead of discussing it. If they had questions, they could ask one another, but they otherwise stayed silent, aside from the occasional humming from the fourth year.

He already had some ideas on how to make a template that would dictate a map to self-map itself. The other parts of it, namely making it map different areas based on where it was instead of mapping the one area. A map that moved with you. Not so easy. The hard part after that was getting their templates to work with one another, and subsequently every template they made afterwards.

It was precisely this reason that Lycus decided not to focus on the ludicrous map, opting to think about how to make the horcrux into something that could be used to send messages. Although it would be more of sending messages through two pieces of a soul, not through an object.

The current book Lycus was reading was a journal dating back to the fourteen hundreds from someone named Nicandro Fame. Over five hundred years ago. Merlin. It was probably an alias of some sort, and this Nicandro Fame may very well still be alive. The very thought of that filled Lycus with veneration. The knowledge and experience this person must have by now were beyond that of which Lycus could ever hope to achieve.

Naturally, Fame was someone who created a horcrux. Oddly enough, the method of which is not stated, but he does give a fair account of the soul-splitting method. The Killing Curse was made in the early 17th Century, two hundred years after the journal was written, so the curse itself was not one of the methods Fame knew.

Other forms of soul-splitting are given instead, and they all follow along the same train of thought: damage your soul in some way to the point of shattering, and then take one of the shards of soul out instead of letting it fuse back together. This piece of soul could then be transferred to another object, living, dead, or non-living (undead unconfirmed) by which the piece of soul will continue on apart from the body. Having your soul outside of your body causes no issues, but splitting it does. A split soul indicated corruption, and that corruption took its toll on the body and mind. According to Fame, "The magic of the soul is what sustains the body. All living things have a soul for this reason. Without it, the body would crumble, and the mind would deteriorate."

Lycus had a short thought of whether or not muggles had magic since they had souls, and maybe that magic simply did not manifest in a way that allowed it to be used as wizards and witches did. If he had time in the future, he would look into that.

Fame mentioned in passing, so subtle that Lycus barely caught it, that he had made a connection with someone else's soul using his horcrux that allowed him to send that person thoughts. Since Fame's entire soul was, somehow, in this horcrux, it didn't properly connect back into his own conscientiousness, and he couldn't receive any worded messages from this other person, but she could send minimal thoughts and ideas to him. That's what Lycus inferred, at least, since the only line that mentioned this phenomenon was "My friend added part of her soul to my own horcrux, and I have found that I can sometimes hear her thoughts."

That line was what gave Lycus the idea to turn Marvolo's horcrux into his own horcrux, and maybe that would tether their minds together in some way. Give them a way to set their trains of thought along the same trail. Fame listed a few ways to call your soul piece back to you if you wanted to get rid of your horcrux, so Lycus wouldn't have to destroy the horcrux if it was later found that the communication thing didn't work. As was often the case, he would have to wait until he could speak with Marvolo before he went through with this. But at least he had a viable option that would genuinely be undetectable and presumably instantaneous.

With progress made in that department, Lycus turned his focus onto the main task at hand. The house elves, he decided, would have to wait until after he had confirmed that he wasn't allowed to make any student allies - which meant he had to wait until after spring break. The centaurs were now open to talking, not that he knew when he should visit next. The selkies and acromantulas were therefore next on his list to contact.

Which meant he now had to face the problem of going underwater for a long time to talk to creatures that may not care for him or his cause at all, and will maybe tell Dumbledore of his visit. Fun. Self transfiguring gills would be very useful right now. But he didn't have the time to learn to do that.

Lycus bookmarked and closed the journal of Nicandro Fame and took out a parchment to write to his father about potions that could be used to breath underwater. He should have done this a while ago, but runes were so very distracting. He'd have to wait for a few days to get a reply as his parents were more often than not out of the country to establish their own international connections, but that was fine. It just gave him time to visit the acromantulas.

After a cursory search on hexes that would work well against spiders, big and small, and a subtle mention of acromantulas to Hermione and Luna to see if they would tell him anything he should know, Lycus was heading into the Forbidden Forest for round one with the arachnids.

It was another Sunday, the only day there were no classes, and it was nice and sunny at twelve o'clock in the afternoon. Hopefully the sun would help temper the dreariness of the forest, and the eventual gloom of the spider's nest.

He far from feared spiders in any form, but they did creep him out. Well, the giant ones that ate humans as their primary source of food did. The other little spiders were mostly cute.

From what he knew of acromantulas, which was not much, they were probably a lost cause. But if there were a chance that they would side with Marvolo, er, Dacarus, then he had to at least try. Every number counted. Doubly so when those numbers could kill for you.

With the Evanescent Cloak equipped and at least four anti-spider spells in his arsenal, he took a step into his next venture in the Forbidden Forest. He had no idea what to look for besides webs and an eerie sense of being watched from all sides. The forest was only so expanse, however. As long as he knew what ground he covered each time he went in, he could piece together a rudimentary map of the forest in his head. Take note of landmarks, like those two trees growing inside one another, and he should be fine to escape back the way he came before being rendered into a spider snack.

After a couple of hours and a few double takes, Lycus was certain that some parts of the forest were naturally more dismal than other parts. He sometimes would be walking through a dim, densely packed forest, and other times he found himself walking through a funeral of trees that withered to mourn the lack of light and air. Perhaps something was causing that to happen. Like an infestation of spiders.

That change between the two moods of the forest happened subtly, which is why it took him so long to realize it wasn't his imagination. He had taken several turns within the forest attempting to run into spiders and map out the area, and he was pretty sure that he now going the opposite way he needed to find the funeral forest. There was a chance he would cross paths with centaurs again, if anything.

He turned around, very tempted to call it quits on the day, but he wasn't doing this for fun. This was for Marvolo, to further his goals and make him King of the Wizarding Empire. King, rather than emperor, because an emperor denotes the inability to have a choice in what the government does, and that wasn't the message they wanted to send. Maybe that's why Marvolo named his horned serpent Empress: to make up for his own lack of total control as emperor.

A sudden thought made Lycus choke on his onslaught of not-giggles. If Marvolo would one day be King, than that meant that he was currently a prince, right? Mental note to refer to Marvolo as the 'Dark Prince' sometime during spring break. That had a nice ring to it. Rolled off the tongue more smoothly than Dark Lord. Dark King, not so much, but Marvolo wasn't going to stand for light or dark with his title in the future, so that point was moot.

Internal musings now complete, and not-giggles had, Lycus pulled his attention back to the matter at hand: seeking spiders. He'd be finding webs before he found spiders, or so he hoped, so it was more him trying to find patches of white or light grey to ensure he was in spider territory. And he did, which meant he was.

"Found" was a bad description of what happened. He stepped into something squishy, and then he couldn't lift his foot. And while his reading up on acromantulas did indicate that they had intelligence, and the more intelligent brood fathers and mothers could learn a language beyond their natural clicking, nowhere whatsoever did it imply that they set up traps to catch prey. Granted, maybe this wasn't a trap, but it sure felt like one with the acromantula that just casually brushed past him.

Second time using the cloak. First time, he accidentally trapped a deer. This time, he escaped almost certain doom. It was safe to say it had its ups and downs.

And now he had to free his foot from the webbing, which was strong enough that he would have to remove his shoe to be free without using a spell. There were magical properties to acromantula silk, and it was also physically durable. But it was nothing like dragonhide, which meant a simple Diffindo would be able to cut through it. Cutting through it would only loosen the grip, not free him. Different spell it is, then.

He pulled out his wand and whispered "Evanesco." not wanting it to be loud even though it wouldn't be heard if he was. The web that caught his foot vanished.

He glanced at where the toddler sized spider went to make sure it wasn't still around. Irrational to do, but comforting. The spider was gone, as far as he could see, which wasn't very far. Misplaced comfort now in place, he continued on his way towards what would most definitely be the acromantula nest, careful not to step in any more webs.

The webs gradually became more numerous, trailing between trees, clumping in bushes, probably inhibiting the nature's ability to flourish too. As the webs grew more numerous, the trees grew less so until they had reached a point of being spaced out at least a meter, allowing for the sunlight to peek through the canopy. It was a welcome sight.

He had passed many acromantulas by this point, some the size of him, and some the size of babies. Other normal spiders dangled from the branches of the trees, spinning pretty little webs, left undisturbed by their larger magical counterparts.

Through the trees ahead of him was a sudden empty space, devoid of any trees or spiders. He slowed down, wary of an ambush even if it was virtually impossible for him to be detected, and came to a stop at the edge of a wide indent in the earth. A steep slope acted as the walls of the hollow, leading to a center massive web. It seemed the trees had their canopies, and the spiders had theirs.

Without any trees, the area was well lit. It didn't need to be well lit to see the colossal acromantula perched in the web at the center.

A drawn out Fuck made its way into Lycus's mind. This was a death trap. That he needed to enter. He really didn't want to.

He stepped into the hollow of horrors, trekking down the steep decline with great caution. If he kicked a rock down, they would know. The cloak wouldn't stop that. Taking off the cloak would also reveal him, something he was strongly averse to, and alert the acromantulas that he managed to sneak into their nest. They would not take kindly to that.

Lycus succeeded in getting to the edge of webbed dome without disturbing the environment or spiders. Here goes nothing.

He put on the Arnou glamours and took off the cloak, but kept it firmly gripped in his hands, ready to be clipped back on at a moments notice. The big, too big, acromantula in the center of the dome didn't react instantly. Maybe it was asleep.

A low clicking noise filled the air, the acromantula's pincers moving ever so slightly. Lycus didn't like that. He also didn't like the sudden appearance of one too many smaller-but-not-small-enough acromantulas over the edge of the hollow, quickly making their own way down.

With a limited amount of time before one of them were upon him, even less for when they got close enough to trap him in a web, he cut right to the chase and hoped for the best, "I want to help you!"

The acromantula he directed that towards stilled completely, pincers no longer clicking. The others didn't stop, naturally, though they slowed down. That may have just been wishful thinking on Lycus's part, but it helped him continue to keep his cool.

He went to say something else before the spiders got to him, but the big ass spider in the dome beat him to it, "My friend could not help me. No one can."

Lycus didn't bother to check how close the encroaching spiders were when he snapped his cloak back on. There was distinct shock in each eye of the big spider as he disappeared. Lycus turned around to find hundreds of smaller spiders behind him, just as they had been in front and beside. There were too many to just walk by. He should have brought a broom.

The lone human in the area began the arduous task of wading through a sea of spiders, thanking the stars, Merlin, Brooks, Dalish, Hermione, and Luna for the Evanescent Cloak. He may still be running into spiders, but those spiders did not realize it.

In the time it took to get back up to the edge of the hollow, he was able to ponder what the spider had said. He has a friend. But who could possibly have made friends with an acromantula? They may have a peaceful pact with the centaurs, and that's what he's referring to, but Lycus doubted that the centaurs would do anything with acromantulas but kill them. The only person insane enough to approach an acromantula nest without proper forces was Hagrid - and now him. Lycus would not put it past Hagrid to do that. Actually, Hagrid may be the only one who could pull it off. Clearly, Lycus didn't. Yet.

What that spider said implied that his friend had already tried to help him, which meant that he had a problem. Lycus had been referring to something more along the lines of providing them with a bigger forest that was theirs alone, or ensuring they would have food no matter what. He would still make that offer if the time came, but for now he needed to get them to simply not kill him the instant he stepped near the nest.

If he could figure out what this problem was and fix it, perhaps they would give him a chance.

He got back to the edge of the hollow, which was less spider abundant. The spiders that were there weren't moving, waiting to spring on whatever moved. He issued another round of thanks to the same people as he walked through the trees, still careful about webs, which may or may not be more numerous than before. Even the non magical spiders seemed poised to fly at whatever they thought was an intruder.

When he got to an area where no acromantulas could be seen or heard, Lycus breathed in a sigh of relief, and breathed out an even more drawn out than before verbal "Fuck."

A package arrived a couple days later, drawing the attention of Hermione and Luna. Lycus knew it had to do with the water breathing potions he asked his father about, but they probably thought it had to do with runes. He shook his head at them, to which they sighed. He'd still be asked about it later, no doubt.

He waited until he had the chance to read the letter in peace, finding his suspicions correct. His father sent him a multitude of potions for breathing underwater, though the main difference was how much time they lasted. Even so, some of them only gave him gills, and others would provide him with aquatic appendages to aid in swimming. His father mentioned a potion that would give him an actual tail, but he decided not to pursue that one.

Now he could visit the selkies. He'd have to wait a few more days to do so until he had an idea of how long he'd be down there each time. A new template needed to be applied to the cloak so it didn't provide any resistance in the water. Or the air, for that matter. He wondered how long he'd be adding new things to it.

While some of the potions provided swimming aid, he would still only be so fast. A broom would have been very useful with the acromantulas. Selkies weren't particularly violent, but they were underwater and on the bottom of the Black Lake. Water was very hard to travel through. An underwater broom would be appreciated, but those didn't exist.

They didn't exist yet. That was something he could look into. A side project. Unlike the Evanescent Cloak, the map, and the horcrux communicator, he could actually capitalize on this. Although, if he made the Evanescent Cloak into a simple invisibility cloak, just powered with runes and not demiguise hair, he could probably sell that too.

Over the days leading up to the next Sunday, he spent time on those two things since Hermione and Luna needed a bit more time on their templates. He kind of did, too, but he had a couple already drawn up.

The broom itself would need some configuring, because a person sitting on top was anything but aerodynamic. He'd probably have to turn it into a sled type vehicle, and give it a tapered glass shield so the water slid off of it, instead of pushing against. The runic invisibility cloak was very simple, done within a day. He really did wonder why wizards had never done this before, but then he'd have to start questioning his own sense of style for being out of date. He would keep his waistcoats, cravats, and peacoats, thank you very much.

Patent paperwork was as boring as expected, so being allowed to get away from his spontaneous business venture was a relief. The weather was still cold, which made this underwater endeavour less enjoyable, but it was required.

With a newer version of the Evanescent Cloak and a Warming Charm, Lycus waded into the Black Lake. Once it was up to his waist, he downed two of the potions, one meant to last two hours and the other to give you the aquatic appendages that would help you swim.

Once equipped to swim in the lake, he dove into the water. Even with the Warming Charm, he could feel the bite of the water around him. The bright sunlight allowed for him to see without much difficulty despite the water's high turbidity. There was a chance that that was an effect of the second potion.

The cloak worked just fine underwater. He was able to pass by the grindylows no problem and was not yet drowning. Finding the selkie village was not as easy as it sounded, taking almost the full first hour to do so. As he approached the stone buildings he became Arnou, taking a few extra moments to make the glamours work with the gills and feathery fins. He couldn't really see any of them from where he was, but he heard faint voices and swishing sounds. As with the centaurs, he took the cloak off before meeting any of them.

He called out to where he heard the voices rather than entering the village uninvited. Within moments, a few selkies darted towards him faster than he could follow, and at least three tridents were thrust at his throat.

Lycus had seen a selkie once, when one of them came up during the second task of the Triwizard Tournament to talk to Dumbledore. From far away, it looked a lot like a humanoid fish. Up close, he could see that they had a lot of fish features, but they still looked more human than anything. Other than the tail, discoloured skin, webbed fingers, and several fins, they were human in appearance.

Arnou slowly brought his hands up unarmed, "I just want to talk."

"About what?" the scratchy voice of one of the selkies asked. Their voice did not sound as human as they looked.

"Changing the Ministry."

The selkies looked at one another, and drew their tridents back enough that they didn't look like they were about to kill him. "Are you from the Ministry?" The same one asked.

Arnou shook his head.

"Then who are you sent by?"

"Myself, I would say. My friend Dacarus and I work together, though."

The tridents were drawn back even more at that. They seemed to relax when they heard he wasn't from the Ministry. This might be easier than he thought if they had a less stable relationship with the Ministry than he originally assumed.

"So you don't work for an organization?" another selkie asked.

An organization? Now that's an idea. "No, we don't. We don't have enough support to make one." Arnou thought they might ask why they couldn't make an organization, but they nodded their heads instead.

One of the selkies who was still very tensed continued the question line, getting to the point Arnou expected, "What do you want to change about the Ministry?"

"We want to get rid of your restrictions. We don't believe that just because you're not human and have a different culture that you should be treated differently." Arnou replied smoothly. It was the right thing to say by the looks of it, as each selkie let themselves relax completely, weapons put away.

"Have you met with the centaurs yet?" The first selkie asked.

Arnou nodded again, "It didn't go this pleasantly, but I was told that it would be taken to Magorian."

The selkies looked at each other again, surprise flickering across their features. If the centaurs, the more bitter of the two, trusted him enough to go to their leader, they had no reason not to. They came to an agreement just through their expressions and the main selkie spoke again, "We will go to Merchieftainess Murcus about this. If she decides it is worth hearing you out more, we will let you know next you visit."

He gave them a smile and thanked them. They swam back to where they came from, and Arnou took the liberty to do the same, pushing off the sandy floor of the lake for extra speed, putting the cloak back on when out of their vision.

Lycus didn't know when the next visit would be, but it would be before spring break. He needed something more than "I met with them" when he reported to Marvolo. Now that he knew where they were, he could probably take a trip to the centaurs and the selkies on the same day.

In the three weeks leading up to spring break, Arnou did manage to meet the centaurs and selkies again. The first possible Sunday was taken by a cursory meeting of the defense club from Professor Tonks. The second till last Sunday he made it to the forest, and it was spent mostly wandering around enough to map most of it out mentally. He still had yet to catch a glimpse of centaur civilization.

Like last time, he ran into a group. Two of the centaurs stayed behind with arrows trained on him. Unlike last time, the other three went to wherever they lived in the forest to fetch Pikrin, who had since been delegated the job of the "Human Liaison" by Magorian, because she was the one who spoke to him before.

Two centaurs returned: Pikrin, and another spotted one from the three that left to get her. The three remaining centaurs that weren't Pikrin went on their way.

She turned to him, her bow looped over her shoulder and not taught with an arrow. Progress.

"I'll admit, we did not expect you to come back eagle-wolf," she began. She pursed her lips while looking at him, simultaneously confused and curious. "Why have you?" She crossed her arms and gave him a piercing look. Centaurs didn't need Veritaserum to know when you were lying, it seemed.

"I wouldn't have come here in the first place if I wasn't going to come back. Unless you guys chased me out." he replied honestly.

She glared, "That's not a reason."

"I'm here to continue where we left off," he said easily, not perturbed by her glare. "So you can ask questions and know what our plans are."

The glare continued for a few moments but ultimately eased when she discerned that he was telling the truth. She took him up on his offer of answering questions by asking one, "What do you mean by 'our'?"

"I don't work alone," he started, and thought about how the selkies wanted to know if he was part of an organization. He extended the information to the centaurs, certain they'd want to know too, "I have a friend that has the same ideas. His name is Dacarus. We don't work for anyone, since nobody is willing to help."

Pikrin huffed at the last part, not surprised in the slightest and still just as apprehensive, "If nobody is willing to help, then why do you think you can do anything?"

He face was laced with a detached smile at his next words, "We have already concluded that there are not enough humans who want to help you to make a difference. We have also concluded that the humans will be helpless against magical creatures who actually do something. We'll be taking a political route to give them a chance to change their minds, but if they don't, we'll just get rid of them."

She shifted her stance, eyebrows raised slightly. "Get rid of them how?"

"If all goes right, and we are certain it will, then the magical governments will be torn down and rebuilt by magical creatures. Humans don't like change, and they certainly don't like to be told that others are equal or above them. If we have to force it through non-political means, that's what we will do." He explained freely, not worried that the centaurs would find the implied violence as off-putting.

Pikrin took on a much more considerate appearance, faint glimmers of respect showing through her eyes. The knowledge that he was willing to actually attack the Ministry evidently pleased her.

"I see... and you are going to let magical creatures rebuild the government?" she asked mildly, the tip of her tail flicking lightly.

Arnou gave her an affirmative nod, but followed it up with more explanation that he hoped wouldn't lose his points, "Yes. Specifically, any magical creature than can and wants to take part will be rebuilding. This includes humans," Pikrin's eyes hardened again, her tail still, but she let him continue. "Our aim is to be rid of prejudice and restrictions. We can't change opinions, but we can change the government. Over time, opinions will evolve to work with the new government. Humans will be included in the government making process, because to not allow that is hypocritical, but they will in no way have more power than any other creature."

She was appeased once more, but only just. "How do you decide what creatures can and cannot take part in the rebuilding?"

Lycus had "talked" this over with Marvolo for a few weeks the first time the Dark Lord told him of his plans. Marvolo was going to say that every creature could have a hand in the government, but Lycus had quickly pointed out that not every creature had the intelligence to do so. It became a conversation of if creatures with enough intelligence, like the centaurs, would be okay with leaving out those that weren't considered intelligent enough, like puffskeins. In the end, they had to settle on something, and they did so in the best way they could think of.

"As I said, any magical creature that has the ability to, and wants to, will be able to. It would be counterproductive to include the creatures that want to purely on the basis of power. You need to be able to make laws that are unbiased, and aren't just going to make you have more benefits than others. If that's not your goal, you just have to be able to comprehend what you're doing, which means that brainless creatures such as flobberworms don't count," Arnou paused to see her reaction to that part. Upon finding her nod calmly, he continued, "The other part is so we aren't forcing anyone to do something they don't want to. Sphinxes don't care about politics in the slightest, so they aren't likely to want to rebuild laws even if they are intelligent enough. We'll give them a chance, and the spot will always be open, but it's ultimately their choice."

Pikrin proved receptive to these beliefs, "I understand and I agree. I have one more question for you before we are done."

Arnou waved his hand for her to continue.

"What do you think we want?"

His amber eyes betrayed his appreciation for such a clever question. He was a human who was assuming that the centaurs wanted help, and he was offering them a way to completely revise the government without truly knowing what they would change. He was either very stupid, lucky, or had done his research.

"Land that isn't surrounded by people and inhabited by dark creatures. To be left alone and allowed to live without obstruction or restriction. I imagine that you also want to be able to be considered as the intelligent individual species that you are, who deserves respect and recognition for that fact," he hesitated on the last part, something Pikrin noticed but didn't comment on. "And I think that it's possible you may want to have... the option of government assistance, even if you never need it."

She regarded him favourably, tail back to swishing lightly and her stance more relaxed. She was comfortable enough in his presence to drop her guard, even if just a little bit. The Ravenclaw had done his research. Was that really a surprise?

"I will take this to Magorian. Next time, you may be able to speak with him yourself. Farewell, eagle-wolf." She nodded her to him head as she left, so slight that Arnou almost didn't see it. He returned it. Was it just him, or did the way she said eagle-wolf sound the tiniest bit affectionate?

It took a while to get out of the Forbidden Forest, having been deep within it. Lycus didn't bother taking off the glamours since he was going to visit the selkies.

He did essentially the same as last time: waded into the water, took two potions, and then dove in. It only took him half an hour to find the village, already knowing where it was. The conversation that happened between them that time went in much the same direction as the one he had with Pikrin. The selkies hadn't designated a "Human Liaison" as the centaurs had, but he was supposed to seek out Nisen when he came by instead of speaking to a whole group of them.

One part of his discussion with Nisen, whom he had yet to figure out if was male or female, differed to the one he had with Pikrin.

Nisen didn't ask what Arnou thought the selkies wanted. Instead, Nisen told Arnou something that admittedly threw him off a bit, "We don't care for a bigger lake or to live in our own lake devoid of giant squids and grindylows. We are friends with Dumbledore, and we want to stay."

Arnou opened his mouth to reply, but didn't know what to say for once. Nisen, thankfully, wasn't done, and went on to explain more, "We don't like the Ministry. It could certainly do with a good amount of change, however you think you can achieve that. There are other groups of us, and our cousins of fresh water, who would benefit from your presence. It's because of this that Merchieftainess Murcus has decided to support you when the time comes, but we ourselves aren't being oppressed in the way you think we are."

For a second, Arnou looked like a fish out of water. He was quick to cool his face into an impassive mask, choosing to ignore the amused look Nisen had. "Do you know how we can contact these other groups?"

A thoughtful look appeared on the selkies face, "I will have to ask Merchieftainess Murcus if she remembers where any of them are. It is likely that those she can remember have since moved, so you may have to look for them."

The sigh that left Arnou felt very weird going through gills in his neck.

He returned to the surface slowly after they ended the conversation so he wouldn't have to wait when he got there for the potions to wear off. Now that he was done with what he needed to do within the first three months back to Hogwarts, he could stop fretting over it. Maybe he'd have time to go practice some self transfiguration for the first time since he got to Hogwarts.

The train left on Saturday for spring break, giving the three one more day to properly discuss the map's first three templates. Neither Lycus nor Hermione had been able to truly complete a template, always finding some issue with it. Because of this, they started with Luna.

She laid out several templates. With just a glance, the two fifth years were confused.

"Uh, Luna?" Lycus opened with.

"Yes?" she replied sweetly. Almost too sweet.

"These are all just different things you're protecting from. It doesn't really work as a thief preventative if it only prevents thievery from one thing."

Her eyes lit up in understanding, "Oh, I see. You wanted these." She pulled a couple more templates out. These were more concise, and covered the greater range that was expected.

Luna only smiled at their irked sighs.

The two fifth years studied the provided templates, each coming to their own conclusion.

"This one," Hermione held it up, "Uses the olemuh rune. That one won't like my istotaz rune." The olemuh and istotaz runes both meant entity in their own way, and they were the kind of runes that didn't like to work together.

"And this one," Lycus held up the other, "Uses the piiru rune, which would make my use of it invalid." Pirru was an 'egotistical rune', meaning that it could only be used once on any object. It was also the only area rune that allowed you to set a radius, which meant Luna was forced to concede that point.

They only technically needed one, but they all made at least two different versions so they had options in case the templates weren't compatible with one another. Like in this case. And in the future, it would be even more so.

It was Luna's turn to sigh, "What if I used the inlahn rune for entity, and the laufan rune for area?"

Hermione was still forced to deny, "Inlahn still won't work. It's too shy when compared to the istotaz."

"...Uksu." Luna pouted. Hermione looked up in thought and then nodded.

"Uksu should be okay."

The two turned towards Lycus who gave his thoughts on the laufan rune, "Laufan would allow me to use pirru, but I don't know if it works for you. You seem to be trying to repel people that are around the map, not people who are trying to take the map, or use it."

Hermione took the template Lycus was looking at and had to agree, "This one doesn't have a password. It doesn't have a way to let the map know that you are one of the users at all." She looked at Luna questioningly.

The fourth year brought out another parchment with another template on it, "I was thinking that nobody could steal a map they couldn't get near. I made a separate template," she slid the most recent one she brought out over to them, "For that part that tells it to allow only those with the magical signatures that powered it to use the map."

"Why didn't you just make it unperceived to anyone unless they have an object that links them to the map?" Hermione asked. "Like the Evanescent Cloak, but detectable to some."

Luna sulked, "I tried to do that. I couldn't figure out how." She took out another template, sliding this one across the table with a glare.

Again, it was Hermione who took the offered parchment, smiling lightly to herself when she saw what the problem was, "You fell into the same trap I did when I first worked with the demiguise rune."

"And what trap is that...?" Luna asked slowly, keen eyes staring Hermione down.

Hermione glanced slyly at Lycus before reciting him, "You're trying to use the demiguise rune as the focal point. Of course that's not working. The only template that will allow that to happen is one where you put something inside a box and it disappears. And I don't just mean visually."

Where Lycus was highly amused, Luna was dropping her head onto the table with a groan after realizing what she did wrong.

The next few hours were spent like this, the three of them drawing out the time until the last minute. Both Lycus and Luna were out for spring break, so there would be no more meetups to discuss the ever fascinating subject of runes until they came back.

* * *

A/N A brief overview of the Marauder's Map issues in case anyone else noticed it: The map does indeed have, at the very _least,_ two charms on it, but it was mapped by hand. The Homonculous Charm only acts to locate and track people, it doesn't make the map itself. It has a likely third charm on it as well, so that makes two charms that haven't come up. I'll find some way to wiggle those into the story in the future to save myself from explaining all of it right now.

Joshua the Arcanis: Funnily enough, I thought about adding Luna into the story before I began the second chapter, I think purely based on the fact that I love Luna. However, as the story is going right now, I feel a little bit like I may have forced her character into the story, and her personality isn't coming out naturally like Hermione has. She is, unless something changes, probably going to be a minor character, whereas Hermione seems to be becoming a major character. One of my mottos is "Where the story flows, I go" so... yeah. And, uh, the Evanescent Cloak. I actually don't have any ideas on how to bypass the Map, so if anyone out there does, feel free to let me know. For the Sword of Gryffindor and introducing Harry, I totally agree, and scenes on how to get that done have already begun popping up in my mind, so thanks for that. And now my reply is way too long, so I'll see you next chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N So this is late. So late that I'm just going to apologize and move on. I'm not going to give excuses, because this happens to all novice writers. I think. Blah. Once again, no abandonment will happen. Ensuring y'all know that. Just a little necessary procrastination, especially with school running. I'm involved with time demanding clubs, so I don't have a lot of it to go around. The update schedule is probably going to have to be dropped (if that weren't obvious) until I get into the swing of balancing school and writing. And that's assuming I've gotten my creativity back and this isn't just a blip.

Enjoy.

* * *

Lycus wasn't the only one who needed to contact the other over the course of the last three months, having been told by his mother that the Dark Lord wanted to speak with him on a couple of things. Villa didn't know what they were; Lycus could only imagine.

He stepped into the room that was currently inhabited by Marvolo, who was sitting quietly in front of a benign fire, tea on the coffee table between him and the other seats. One of his hands held a document of sorts, being read, and the other was moving its fingers smoothly to give Empress challenges to braid through. The little serpent had grown a few inches in Lycus' time away, at least thirteen now. If only she could stay tiny forever.

The teen dropped into a seat across from Marvolo, setting his bag on the ground next to his feet ready to be excavated if he ever needed to pull anything out.

The man looked up, not surprised at all by his appearance, "Ah, Lycus, back from spring break. Very good," he put the document on the table, "We have much to discuss."

"We do. Do you want me to report before we continue on to anything else?"

"Yes. I trust things have been going well?" Marvolo asked, clearly not believing himself if the smirk said anything.

Lycus already looked bored of the Dark Lord's antics as he responded, "They've been going as well as expected. The centaurs and selkies are receptive. I'm going to be talking to their leaders next time I meet with them. The acromantulas were disagreeable at best, but I have a lead that may make them less so: they have a problem. If I fix that problem, they'll be in our debt."

Marvolo waited for him to continue, expecting more. He was waiting to hear about the house elves, but Lycus had no intention of jumping into that talk.

When nothing else was said, he asked "What is this problem?"

"I don't know. But they have a friend who does," Lycus looked at Marvolo questioningly when he nodded. "Do you know who it is?"

"You don't?" Marvolo feigned surprise, acting as though this was common knowledge.

With an internal sigh, Lycus replied "Not yet." This answer garnered an amused look from Marvolo.

"Good answer. It's Rubeus Hagrid." Marvolo told, to which Lycus nodded.

"That's who I thought it was." Lycus left it at that, waiting for the inevitable question that would transition him nicely into asking about Hermione, but possibly also into a mad Dark Lord.

He didn't have to wait long, Marvolo asking after sipping his tea, "What of the house elves?" He raised an eyebrow, evidently expecting no news on that front and not being happy about it.

"I haven't contacted them yet. But that's because they would go to Dumbledore the instant they heard that someone unknown entered the school talking about taking down the Ministry." Lycus explained, hoping that Marvolo wouldn't jump to a curse or two. The Dark Lord hadn't shown those tendencies as of yet, but Lycus also hadn't done anything so blatantly against Marvolo's plans.

"I trust you have a good reason for not making a way around that issue already." Marvolo said coolly, even while his posture would say he was heated. Lycus was only partially relieved by Marvolo believing he would have found a way around it if he didn't have a reason not to.

"Yes," Lycus began, seeing a bit of the tension leave Marvolo's shoulders. "There is a student at Hogwarts, Hermione Granger - you've probably heard of her - who created an organization known as S.P.E.W - the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. She's promoting house elf rights and protection. I think she would be a valuable ally, intellectually and politically."

"Hermione Granger," Marvolo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Isn't she one of Potter's closest friends?" Lycus nodded. "I see. Someone in her position helping us would certainly be useful." He continued rubbing his chin, thinking some more. Not being angry or annoyed was good enough in Lycus's mind.

Lycus answered one of Marvolo's future questions before it could be asked, "She will only be part of the magical creature aspect. She wouldn't know that Dacarus and Arnou are personas, or the real reason behind it."

Marvolo made a hum sound, still contemplating. They weren't even supposed to branch out into the Hogwarts' student population until after summer. Things were just falling into place there. Anything that sped the plan up was welcome.

After another sip of tea, Marvolo voiced his decision, "I will allow this if you ensure that she does not step out of line." Lycus nodded once, sealing this new source of stress in place. It did not go over the Ravenclaw's head that the Dark Lord did not mention her blood status. Lycus didn't know if that was progress in taking down Marvolo's hate of muggles, or an oversight on Marvolo's part. Either way, that ended better than Lycus was willing to expect.

"Now then, have you made any progress with the second task?" Marvolo continued.

Lycus hesitated, less positive on how Marvolo would react to this. He was very touchy when it came to his soul. There was no keeping something from the Dark Lord though, "In a way. I have an idea, but it requires my making a horcrux out of yours."

The Dark Lord's eyes took on a humoured serpentine glint, "Trying to defy death, too, are you?"

"Not at all. It's just that someone was able to make a mental connection with another person through a horcrux," Lycus reached into his bag and took out Nicandro Fame's journal, holding it up briefly for Marvolo to see. "This is his journal. He doesn't go into detail about the connection, but he does mention other things regarding the soul. If this idea doesn't work, I can remove my soul shard from your horcrux without damaging it."

Marvolo hissed softly and Empress moved to circle around his wrist so he could use his hand again. Lycus proceeded to hand the journal over at the prompt of Marvolo. He flipped through it, oddly impassive as he did so. Lycus didn't like that at all. One of the few things Lycus had that was truly above the skill and knowledge of other magical beings was reading body language and expression. Purebloods thought that they were good at being emotionless, but they never thought about their posture beyond being "proper." Not being able to read someone, especially Marvolo, was less than unnerving.

"Nicandro Fame," he said quietly, sounding almost as if he recognized the name. He shut the journal and put it back on the table. "I'll have to read through that before I agree to anything."

"Of course." Lycus agreed. That's why he brought out the journal in the first place.

"Since you have been progressing so well in those two, you should have no problem with another one." Marvolo smiled. Lycus didn't think it was because he was impressed. More that Marvolo was taking joy in giving him things to do. That would make him a fine delegator.

"No. I shouldn't." Lycus said slowly. It's not like it mattered if he did have a problem with it. Marvolo's word was, or at least would be, law.

"This is more important than befriending the creatures, but don't dedicate all of your time to it. It's for the goblins." Marvolo said casually, stirring his tea with a finger. His casual demeanor clashed with Lycus's tension, which was probably what the Dark Prick was going for.

"I need you to find the Sword of Gryffindor." Marvolo sipped his tea again for good measure, completely serene.

A flood of emotions coursed through Lycus in that moment, all able to be summed up as a simple heavy sigh. He should have known that the goblins would ask for the sword at some point. There had been a "rebellion" over it for Merlin's sake.

"Do I have a time limit on this?" he asked while rubbing his temple.

"No. Though I recommend finding it as soon as possible," Marvolo replied with a light tone, indicating his joy at annoying the teen. Lycus nodded in agreement. The goblins were crucial to their plot, and the faster they gained the goblins' trust the better. "Now that all of that is out of the way, I have a list for you." Marvolo motioned to the document he had been reading when Lycus came in.

Lycus's eyes lit up in recognition of the list. Part of the plan was to find someone who already existed and had a background of being a supporter of magical creatures for Marvolo to take over. As in, kill the person but keep their body to claim their status. This list was a list of those possible people that his parents would have gathered in their time trapezing around the world for allies. Each name had notes off to the side to explain their views and input into the world. Did they have money, were they of an Ancient and Noble house, where did they live, what were they doing for magical creatures, things like that.

This section of the plan was so they had an actual standing of some sort in the magical world to backup their claims. If they promised aid, but never gave any, what worth did their word have? Some things had to wait, of course. Centaurs, from the Forbidden Forest or otherwise, would have to wait until they had control of the world before they were able to be given land.

And while the Valerian name did indeed hold power and wealth, they didn't have a history of being advocates for magical creatures. They'd have to build it up, whereas others already had that reputation ready to go.

Lycus picked up the document and looked it over. There were twenty three names, all but ten already crossed off. The ones left had a clear theme: political standing and wealth, though the wealth did vary. Lycus recognized most of them himself, had even spoken to some of them once or twice.

The question then was which one could they take over without anyone knowing. If they had a lot of friends, those friends may catch on. If they were active in the government, Marvolo would have to use his time for that or find a logical reason to leave. If they traveled a lot, Marvolo would have to keep that up. Which wouldn't be so bad, but Marvolo wanted to be able to just hang out until needed. Delegate and such.

The whole point of this was so that there were "choices" of who would become the ruler of the Magical Empire. Dacarus was the obvious choice, but if he were the only one, the more clever creatures would point that out and require other candidates. Arnou was also a technical choice, but he wasn't the kind of person who wanted to lead. Not to mention that neither of them were real people. Marvolo himself could never let anyone know who he was, lest the magical world riot. They needed choices so people felt like they were in control, but all of those choices had to lead to Marvolo being King.

So there was the list. The list of people whose names could end up in the running of future King. Not that they knew that.

"I want you to look through the names and narrow it down. You know these people better than I do." Marvolo said as he leaned back, picking the journal up again to begin reading. Lycus nodded again and turned to the list.

Right off the bat Lycus crossed off Pershina Verinka. She was the twin of Aleksandr, who would no doubt notice her disappearance or change of person. They were both of the same mind when it came to magical creatures, but Pershina was the more outspoken of the two, which is probably why his parents didn't note Aleksandr as someone with political standing. Ultimately not useable.

There were two names from North America: Damien Cline and Holly Griffith. Cline, Lycus knew, was very active. He participated in every event possible, spreading his thoughts trying to change others. People liked him less than they normally liked magical creature supporters, and that wasn't a lot in the first place. His name was crossed off. Griffith, on the other hand, took a more subtle route. She had her own business set up with a communications department and welfare center for magical creatures, doing the job of the government for them. She was also a quarter fairy, so creatures automatically trusted her to not have underlying motives. The issue with her was that she wasn't aggressive. She made her opinions clear by actually helping magical creatures, but she didn't partake in any events. She didn't have a voice. Her name was crossed off too.

In South America, there was Gabriel Maciel. There wasn't much that Lycus could say against this one besides Maciel being a traveler. This was someone that Lycus had met on many occasions. In person, Maciel was about as kind and pleasant as a person could be without being a doormat. On second thought, maybe he was too kind. It's not that Marvolo couldn't harden him up believably, it was more that he wasn't leader material. He didn't absolutely have to be, but if he suddenly took on a leading role, someone would start asking questions. Strikethrough.

Next on the list was Lady Saske Daeli, from India, the first who was actually part of an Ancient and Noble house. Another person that Lycus had met. In the past couple of years, in fact, at some winter ball. She had asked him if he knew the Patils, and how they were doing since she hadn't been able to see them since they moved to Europe. Intelligent and pleasant company. One of the most charming persons he had ever met. Lycus didn't even know she supported magical creatures until seeing her name on the list, so she was either very subtle about it, or she never made national news. Both of those could be worked with. Her name was not crossed off.

In northern Europe, way northern on the island of Iceland, was Marina Absalon. She was part of the Ancient and Noble house Absalon, but she did was not considered a Lady. Her family had cast her out for being a supporter of magical creatures. Even so, she had built her way back up to being a prominent figure with an amount of wealth comparable to her family's. That cast-out made her a bit of a martyr, just one that didn't die. That could be good. Her name stayed as well.

From Lycus's own country of Norway was Lord Anders Devonshire. The Valerians and Devonshires were old family friends. Centuries of friendship between those two names. Back and forth correspondence was kept up between them even after the Valerians left for Ireland. Anders was kind of the perfect choice: no spouse, no children, Lord of a Most Ancient and Noble house, a leader who had already succeeded in making changes in Norway, half-veela, clever and intelligent so Marvolo wouldn't hate pretending to be him... He was almost too obvious of a choice. Or maybe that's just what Lycus wanted to think. He had a personal relationship with Anders. He didn't like the idea of killing the man just to further their plans, and he knew that Anders would stick by the Valerians no matter what. He would help regardless of if he was under Marvolo's control.

Reluctantly, Lycus left the name uncrossed to consider the next. Jotaku Nyobe, Namibia. His name held no weight until he made it. All talk but no bite, as simple as that. Your wealth and name meant nothing if you didn't use it. Strikethrough. Farther up that continent was Louai Nazari, an advisor to the current Egyptian Prince. If that wasn't considered weight, Lycus didn't know what was. Despite Nazari's advocation of magical creature rights, he was still seen as a respectable member of the magical community. He, like Anders, had successfully made changes in his government, which were beginning to take effect in surrounding countries. While all of that was great, he was focused within Egypt and the surrounding area. He did not care for branching out. Strikethrough.

The last name, the only one from Australia, was Alina Brooks. Brooks was a Noble name, but not ancient. Her gist was more along the lines of keeping the creatures happy so they didn't expose the magical world. She didn't genuinely seem to care for them like the others did. So she was crossed off as well.

"Alright," Lycus said after a few minutes, to which Marvolo looked up from the journal. "I've narrowed it down to three: Saske Daeli, Marina Absalon, and Anders Devonshire."

Marvolo set the journal aside. "Why these three?"

Lycus provided a brief explanation for them, "Daeli is of an Ancient and Noble house. She's on because she's the kind of person that catches your attention and leaves you hanging on her words. A natural leader. Absalon was cast out of her family for advocating the rights of magical creatures, so they respect her. She has built her own name and reputation. Devonshire is your Renaissance man: no ties, a leader, respected by both sides, head of an Ancient and Noble house, and he's half-human so magical creatures don't think he has an ulterior motive. All of them have clout of some sort, and are not restricted to certain creatures or countries."

Silence followed for a minute as Marvolo pondered the information. "It sounds to me like Devonshire is the one to go," he said. Lycus's grimace did not get past him. "Do you disagree?"

"Not necessarily. It's just that Anders is a family friend. He's the last person you'd need to take over to use." Lycus explained, a little more despondent than he expected of himself.

"Aren't I a family friend?" Marvolo grinned, though it was without humour and he dropped it shortly after. "Besides, Devonshire is the only one I'd worry about actually claiming the position of King."

"I suppose. But the thing is is that Anders wouldn't put himself in the pool if we asked him not to." Lycus tried. He was trying a lot harder than he intended to. It was kind of a surprise to himself. But hey, when you're parents raise you to be a servant, the uncle who treats you like a normal kid wins the brownie points.

"I see," Marvolo said. It sounded like he really did see. Though with what Lycus knew about Marvolo, that wasn't likely. "I won't choose anyone just yet. In the meantime, I am going to continue this journal." he picked up said journal, opening it to wherever he left off last time. In doing so, he just barely missed Lycus's slight relaxation.

With the silent dismissal, Lycus stood up and left the Dark Lord to his musings, opting for his own. He knew that Anders was not only the most reasonable choice, but also the most convenient. They, the Valerians, knew him on a personal "visit for summer" level. It gave them a cover and an easy ticket in getting to Anders. Nobody would question it. Daeli and Absalon were completely different matters. Getting to either of them would be difficult. Flooing to either of their places without notice was not out of the question, but they had no way of knowing if either of them had security.

If he just didn't care for Anders, this wouldn't be a problem. Not caring was the only way, it seemed. Figures that that was the one thing his parents hadn't tried to teach him.

* * *

The best thing about a break from school was being able to work on personal interests without having to worry about progressing the plan. Lycus did still have to think about that, but he could dedicate some of his time to practicing self-transfiguration and battle magic, or the underwater sled thing. The map was available for work as well, but with only the ability to send letters to Hermione and Luna, that was a slow going process. An alternative way to talk over the breaks would have been a good reason to bring up the communication thing if he hadn't already found something.

Granted, it had been a few days, and Marvolo had yet to get back to him on that. It didn't take that long to read Fame's journal, so he must have been mulling it over. There was still a chance Lycus would have to figure something else out.

And because the Dark Lord was busy with his muses, Lycus, for once since said Dark Lord came back, had a lot of free time. Enough that he had begun to get bored of his practice and projects. So he took the time to... get back to thinking about how to more efficiently progress Marvolo's plans. He really needed a hobby that didn't require effort and wasn't considered a job. He actually kind of missed the morning walks on Hogwarts's grounds. Maybe he'd start taking walks at home, too.

He could go walk around the manor, but he had seen those walls and floors too often for it to be fun. The manor grounds would be a good choice, since he had never bothered to visit them. That probably had something to do with the fact they didn't have any. They had a big ass library with more books than you could read in a lifetime. There were indoor dueling and exercise facilities. If they needed to meet someone, they'd visit their house, or the person would visit theirs. Neither side of his family had ever cared for things such as "the outside" or "nature." They did not do the extroversion thing.

So if he wanted to walk around outside or sit under a tree, he'd have to leave. And that wasn't a good idea, because he had to be easily reachable for the Dark Lord.

Lycus mused on what he could do to alleviate boredom. His father was a Potions Master. He needed ingredients. He could always buy them, but why do that if you could grow them to the exact quality and quantity you want? It'd take work, but it'd be worth it. Lycus would have to ask his father about that. He'd be willing to start the garden himself just to have something physical to do that wasn't demanding like exercise.

It's amazing what something like boredom could do to someone.

With the garden idea filed in his mind for later, Lycus sat down to enact the beginning of his own plan. It was still to better advance Marvolo's plans, but it was also of his own imagination. He was always more relaxed and flexible when working on things that were of his creation. That's why the Evanescent Cloak took such little time to complete, minus the Marauder's Map issue. It had nothing to do with what Marvolo expected, or his parents, or his peers, or acquaintances. It was just a fun little enterprise.

This did have to do with what Marvolo expected, but he could still remain mostly content knowing that he brought this upon himself instead of being given the task.

So he began writing a letter to Hermione. Not about their map, or runes. Instead, he approached the topic of house elves: how they have a necessity to be bonded to a witch or wizard, their joy in serving them, though still conceding that they still deserved genuine rights and protections, even if not accepted by the house elves themselves.

The next part of the letter was more of a gamble. He could mention other magical creatures and let her know that the restrictions extended beyond house elves. In doing that, he would open the centaur and selkie floor up to her, which could affect his current progress with them. As she was right now, Hermione wouldn't get along with any centaur besides Firenze. That also risked her finding of Arnou, and she wasn't to know about that. Granted, he could play it as needing a cover to hide his actual status from the magical creatures, so perhaps she could be allowed to know. One day she would, no matter what. She was too intelligent to slip that by forever.

He opted to mention the other creatures, but not specifics. She could do her own research, and he could fill in the gaps where needed.

At least there was nothing to exaggerate or add when describing magical creatures relationships with their magical governments. They were dramatic enough without dramatizing. And she was keen to catch on to that kind of manipulation too, so being able to avoid it was a plus. Oddly enough, it turned out that the best way to manipulate and execute this plan was by being honest. That certainly made it easier.

And of course his reason for contacting her was because of S.P.E.W, and how it led to him knowing she supported magical creatures, and the fact that expressing these beliefs to anyone was practical social suicide for a pureblood. So teaming up on this was beneficial for both sides: Lycus didn't have to commit social suicide while still being able to help, and Hermione had the financial and (some) political backing to give credence to her beliefs. Win-win situation.

Luna, who was very creature forward in a scientific sense, wasn't going to be sent a letter. Lycus had two reasons for this: Marvolo hadn't cleared her yet, and he wasn't entirely sure Luna would be such a positive influence. She was a lot more clever than people gave her credit for, but she was still outwardly dotty, which could hinder their progress.

If Hermione brought her up, he wasn't sure that she would accept those reasons, regardless of their logicity. She was still a Gryffindor, and that came with action based on emotion. Although, she had surprised him more than once at her aptitude in adopting a more "pure logic" way of thinking. So maybe that wouldn't be too much of a problem.

He ended the letter with his typical signature and stepped over to his owl to send it off. He stepped back over to his desk to continue to contemplate the Marauder's Map puzzle. Until solved, it would pester him.

In the following days as he waited for a letter back from Hermione and a decision from Marvolo, he did actually broach the garden topic with his father, who was receptive yet uninterested. Just as Lycus expected. Anton would never do something like gardening (physical labour? Ew) as a pass time unless there was definitive benefit. Which there would be. A hidden garden that grew those less-than-legal ingredients. No need to pay exorbitant amounts of money for them, and there was no trace to link them to dark activities. Plus Lycus was the one that would really be doing the hard work, at least at first. His father couldn't refuse that bargain.

* * *

Joshua the Arcanis: Those are both interesting ideas for the Evanescent Cloak, and I greatly appreciate that you took the time to come up with them. I don't know if I ever would have thought of those myself. Now I just need to see if one of them can be worked into the story... and if any of the characters would actually think them up themselves. As for the acromantulas, I know how to get their cooperation. No worries there. It's just that Lycus needs to figure it out, and that's not so certain.

A/N Since about, oh, too much time has passed since the last chapter, this story has kind of developed in my head, even though it hasn't _really_ , so I apologize if anything seems weird, or there are inconsistencies. I was writing this over the course of that time, so my ideas were ahead of this chapter towards the end of writing it. That being said, I have some things I need to mention: who Marvolo chooses is going to affect the outcome of the story immensely; and there are currently at least three possible endings to this story. I won't name them, I'm simply letting you know that there are variations. I haven't decided on one yet, which is why I'm letting you all know, because your guys' thoughts matter. So, even though you don't know what they are, I'm open to your ideas on what they might be, or even what you think it should be.

Till next time.


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